The mother of a man charged with vandalizing a Greater Chicago synagogue said her son told her that he was going to “shoot Jews,” Illinois country prosecutors told a judge in a hearing on whether to revoke the suspect’s bail.
John White, 40, of Westmont, Ill., was charged last month with a hate crime, vandalism and illegal possession of a firearm after allegedly breaking seven windows and writing anti-Semitic graffiti on the Congregation Etz Chaim synagogue in Lombard, a Chicago suburb.
He pleaded not guilty.
White’s attorney on Monday asked Judge George Bakalis of the 18th Circuit Court of Illinois to reduce his bail from $5 million, while prosecutors asked that he be held without bail, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Prosecutors said in a bail petition filed Monday during White’s arraignment that his mother told police that before he left the house the day of the synagogue attack, he told her he was going to “shoot Jews.”
“The defendant has clearly expressed his intention to kill or cause harm to those of the Jewish faith,” Joe Lint, an assistant state attorney, wrote in the petition. “If he is admitted to bail he poses a real and present threat to the physical safety of any Jewish person.
A new hearing on reducing White’s bail is scheduled for Nov. 18.
During a search of White’s house following his arrest, police found thousands of rounds of ammunition, a shotgun, a rifle and four handguns.
He has been charged on four counts, including possession of a firearm.