NEW YORK — Cyber specialists from a Jewish community nonprofit combing the internet’s deep web were the first to detect a sinister plot to open fire on a New York City synagogue, authorities said Monday.
Mitchell Silber, executive director of the UJA Federation of New York’s Community Security Initiative, said it was his group’s discovery of worrisome tweets that sparked the investigation by the New York Police Department and FBI.
“There’s a lot of chatter on the internet,” Silber said at a City Hall news conference where he was joined by Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell. “One of the most difficult things is discerning what’s just talk and what’s likely to turn to action.”
Christopher Brown, 21, and Matthew Mahrer, 22, were busted at Penn Station late Friday night after Brown started posting his plans on his now-defunct Twitter account.
But their plot may have never been exposed if it were not for a deep dive by online security experts that exposed the imminent threat.
Silber said his group’s analysts uncovered “some alarming texts from this individual, talking about attacking synagogue, talking about 10 o’clock at night, talking about dying by the police.”
Authorities used the information to avert a potential tragedy and arrested the armed men — one of whom had Nazi insignia on him — at Penn Station Friday.
Brown, who possessed a “swastika” armband when he was caught, was charged with making terroristic threats, harassment and weapons possession, said the sources. It was unclear to the sources whether Brown was wearing the armband when he was caught.
The weapon found with the men in Penn Station was a large hunting knife, the sources said.
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