Man With ‘Kill List’ Of Famous Jews Pleads Guilty To Planning Synagogue Attack
Nicholas Rose, 26, is accused of making “kill lists” of prominent members of the Jewish community. Image by Orange County Police Department
By Aiden Pink June 3, 2019
An Orange County, California man who created “kill lists” of prominent Jews was sentenced to more than two years in jail after pleading guilty to threatening two churches and a synagogue.
Nicholas Rose, 28, was arrested last year after his parents told police their son wanted to “get a gun and kill some Jews,” the Orange County Register reported.
Law enforcement searched Rose’s apartment and discovered lists of well-known Jews in the entertainment industry, anti-Semitic literature, a step-by-step list called “killing my first Jew,” and notes referring to a synagogue in Irvine and two nearby churches he believed were too sympathetic to Jews. His internet history contained searches connected to white supremacist ideology and information about the range of a silenced rifle. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in his car, though Rose did not own a gun at that time.
Rose’s lawyer, Brian Gurwitz, said that while his client had used hateful language, he also had written some positive things about Jews. “They were the extremely disorganized thoughts of a young man suffering from mental illness,” he said.
As part of his plea deal, Rose will also have to complete a year in a residential mental health facility, five years of GPS monitoring and stay 500 yards from his victims.
“There is no place for hate,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a statement. “He is a danger to society and every resident of Orange County should be aware of the threat he poses.”
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
