Alier Ojeda Salas (via Miami Dad County Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A man is in custody after allegedly threatening to blow up a Jewish center in Florida.
Alier Ojeda Salas, 42, is accused of making the threats on Tuesday, according to a police report reviewed by Law&Crime. He allegedly approached a security guard outside a Jewish school in Miami Beach. The police report noted that the guard wore a yarmulke, a traditional Jewish head covering.
The guard was standing between the school and a synagogue when Ojeda Salas approached him, the police report said.
“I am Hamas,” Ojeda Salas reportedly said before pointing to a plastic bag that he was holding in his hand. He reportedly stated that the bag contained the explosive C-4.
The guard asked Ojeda Salas to repeat himself.
“I am Hamas,” he repeated, according to the police report, and again pointed to the bag and said it contained C-4.
The security guard, identified in the police report only as Mr. Maya, took action.
“In fear for his safety and welfare, as well as for the safety and welfare of the school children and congregants, Maya alerted both the school and Beth Israel Congregation of this threat to plant a destructive device containing the explosive C-4,” the police report said. “Students were then moved to a safe space, and a lockdown of the school was initiated.”
The guard called Miami Beach police and followed Ojeda Salas as he began to walk away.
“The defendant was ultimately detained … where detectives observed multiple Orthodox Jewish members walking the area where the incident occurred and where the defendant was detained,” the report said.
According to the arrest affidavit, no weapon was seized during Ojeda Salas’ arrest.
He has been charged with one count of threatening to throw a bomb or destructive device, one count of disturbing a religious assembly or school, assault with prejudice against somebody’s religion, and harassing or intimidating a person based on their religious or ethnic heritage.
At Ojeda Salas’ arraignment, Eleventh Circuit Criminal Judge Mindy S. Glazer set a total of $60,000 bond — $25,000 each for the threatening and disturbing charges and $5,000 each for the assault and harassment charges, according to Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ. Through a translator, Ojeda Salas said he is homeless and unable to post any bond.
Records from Miami Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation say that Ojeda Salas is also being held on an ICE detainer. His county of origin was not immediately clear.
Ojeda Salas’ arrest comes at a time of increased tension between the Jewish nation of Israel and the Palestinian people in Gaza. Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization, launched a wide-scale attack on border towns in southern Israel on Oct. 7, going as far as to kidnap and kill hundreds of civilians. Israel’s military response, in turn, has devastated the civilian population of Gaza.
A 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy in Illinois was allegedly stabbed to death by his landlord over the weekend. In Michigan, a man is accused of making terroristic threats against the people of Dearborn, a city near Detroit with one of the highest populations of Arab Americans in the nation.
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