An Oregon man called in several fake bomb threats to Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York City and Long Island, using slurs and threatening to blow the occupants “sky high,” according to federal investigators.
Domagoj Patkovic, 31, made six threats to four hospitals between May 2021 and September 2021, the Justice Department said in an indictment unsealed this week in Brooklyn Federal Court.
All the threats were fake, as Patkovic was calling from his hometown of Portland, according to the feds. However, the calls led to massive law enforcement responses and a partial evacuation at a Long Island hospital in September 2021.
“These alleged actions incited unnecessary hysteria and redirected limited resources to mitigate a false alarm,” said acting FBI New York assistant director Christie Curtis. “The FBI will not tolerate those who utilize hoax bomb threat schemes to satisfy their antisemitic beliefs and endanger the wellbeing of our communities.”
Patkovic made his first call on May 18, 2021, to a Jewish hospital in Queens, according to the feds, telling the operator he had planted bombs throughout the hospital to “kill all k—s.”
Later that same day, Patkovic called a Jewish care center with facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, claiming he had bombs “all over your facility and all those k—s are gonna go skyrocket up into the sky for Allah,” the feds said.
Patkovic made similar calls four more times, adding a different Jewish hospital in Queens and a similar facility in Nassau County to his list of victims, according to investigators. While making the threats, Patkovic live-streamed himself on the internet, the feds said.
“The defendant and his co-conspirators, motivated by their hatred of Jewish people, targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York City and on Long Island with hoax bomb threats, needlessly endangering patients and staff by creating chaos and alarm,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a press release.
Patkovic was arraigned Tuesday in Portland and pleaded not guilty, according to The Oregonian. A judge ordered he be transferred to New York to face trial.
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