A 26-year-old man who allegedly said he wanted to kill Jews was charged Thursday with hate crime threats made against three different Orange County religious institutions.
Nicholas W. Rose was charged with three felony counts of attempted criminal threats with the intent to terrorize and three misdemeanor counts of civil rights violations, according to court records. He also faces sentencing enhancement allegations of a hate crime.
Rose is accused of sending threats to Beth Jacob-Irvine, St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church, which are both in Irvine, and St. Barbara Russian Orthodox Church in Lake Forest on Monday, according to court records.
Sometime around April 16, Rose allegedly told a family member that he wanted to kill people and make violent threats against the Jewish community, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The family member contacted the Orange Police Department to investigate, police said.
On April 17, officers arrested Rose at his Lake Forest residence, where the suspect was accused of possessing .22 ammunition, antisemitic literature, kill lists for prominent Jewish community members and list of steps for “killing my first Jew,” according to the district attorney.
Rose’s bail is set at $500,000.