A teen boy was arrested and charged in September with planning a mass shooting at a synagogue in Canton, Ohio.
According to court documents, the 13-year-old boy, whose identity remains undisclosed, faced charges of inducing panic and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
These charges stemmed from his detailed plan to target the members of Temple Israel, which he shared on the online chat platform Discord, which has been used in the past by mass shooters to discuss their schemes.
The Stark County Sheriff’s Office, upon learning about the plot from Discord on September 1, 2023, notified the school system, triggering significant public alarm. The sheriff’s office’s immediate response was detailed in a filing by Stark County Family Court. This pre-emptive action possibly averted the incident at the synagogue.
During the interrogation, the teen admitted to involvement with various anti-Semitic and politically extremist groups on Discord, as noted in the court records.
The charges against the teenager come at a time when antisemitic attacks are on the rise in the U.S., alongside an increase in anti-Muslim violence. These incidents have escalated since the onset of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in early October. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Cleveland expressed horror at the news and highlighted the need for such actions to be a teachable moment against hate and threats, both online and in real life.
As part of a plea bargain reached with the juvenile court on Friday, December 15, the boy pleaded guilty to meticulous plans for the synagogue shooting. The plea deal required that he engage in counseling and present a book report on a noted Swiss diplomat, Carl Lutz, who orchestrated a rescue operation for Hungarian Jews during the Second World War. This information was disclosed by an administrator at the Stark County, Ohio court.
The youth was initially handed a 180-day detention sentence, with the judge acknowledging 10 days already served and the remainder being suspended. The juvenile court trial was avoided by the plea deal. The judge’s orders now confine the teenager to 12 months of probation, during which he is mandated to attend counseling sessions and is barred from unsupervised internet use.
The incident in Canton, Ohio is not isolated. Recently, a man was federally charged for firing shots outside a synagogue in Albany, New York. Additionally, a Jewish couple was attacked on the way to their local synagogue in Beverly Hills, California. The suspect in this case faces multiple felony counts and potential life imprisonment.
The ADL has reported a significant rise in antisemitic incidents, with over 2,000 cases, including physical assaults, vandalism, harassment, and rallies with antisemitic rhetoric, observed since early October amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.