BURSTA man arrested outside the annual Red Mass ceremony held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral had over 200 explosive devices in a tent on the church's stairs, according to police.
Louis Geri, 41, touted homemade explosives when officers approached him on the step ahead of the service typically attended by Supreme Court justices to ring in a new term, according to court records reviewed by the Washington Post.
Devices were found inside his front pocket and a backpack he was carrying on the scene, in addition to a tent encampment set up in close proximity to the cathedral, the records show.
Authorities also found vials of nitromethane, a colorless, organic compound used in explosive devices, the court records showed.
Geri said he had a background in explosives and told officers at the scene that the vials were intended to be used as grenades with rubber bands to secure the fuse, according to court records, per the Post.
In addition to the nitromethane, he was found in possession of Molotov cocktails and modified bottle rockets covered with aluminum foil and treated in a pyrotechnic solution. Court documents said the devices appeared “fully functional,” the Post reported.
“You might want to stay back and call the federales, I have explosives,” Geri told officers when he was asked to leave, according to court records.
The officer speaking with him called over a sergeant with the bomb squad, who then engaged with Geri, who was previously banned from the premise, and again asked him to disperse due to the event.
“Do you want me to throw one out, I’ll test one out on the streets? I have a hundred-plus of them,” he told the sergeant, according to court records. “If you just step back, I’ll take out that tree. No one will get hurt, there will just be a hole where that tree used to be.”
He later told officers, “several of your people are gonna die from one of these” and eventually handed over a nine-page document outlining his disdain for Catholicism, Judaism, Supreme Court justices and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The pages were torn from his notebook entitled “Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives.”
After the commotion, Geri was eventually handcuffed and detained by officers, who searched him and discovered additional incendiary devices, court records said.
Items were sent to the FBI for review.
Geri has been charged with possession of a destructive device and false report of a weapon of mass destruction. He’s being held in jail without bond.