US

Florida Man Said He Was ‘Gonna Hunt Jews,’ Prosecutors Allege

Billy Hathorn, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A Florida man has been charged for allegedly making threats against Jewish people in videos posted on social media, according to news coverage.

Duncan Fraser MacDonald was charged with one count of interstate transmission of a threat to injure another individual, 10 Tampa Bay News reported, citing court documents.

An FBI affidavit shows that the Jacksonville Joint Terrorism Task Force was alerted to the alleged threats on Sept. 17 by the community security director of the Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida, according to 10 Tampa Bay News. An anonymous person familiar with MacDonald reported viewing videos posted to Instagram that allegedly included threats against Jewish people, the outlet reported.

The FBI said that four separate videos, totaling roughly 1 minute and 25 seconds, were posted to Instagram. In the videos, the narrator allegedly showed off guns, ammunition, tactical gear and other weapons-related equipment, 10 Tampa Bay News reported.

MacDonald allegedly said in one video posted to Instagram that “We’re over here, gonna hunt Jews,” the outlet reported. He also claimed in the video that the “Austrian painter” was correct, in an apparent reference to Adolf Hitler, according to the affidavit.

An FBI agent said in the affidavit that he compared the Instagram video’s narrator to MacDonald’s Florida driver’s license pictures and determined they were the same person, according to 10 Tampa Bay News.

MacDonald was arrested in Arizona on Sept. 20 and now awaits extradition to Florida, according to the outlet.