Suspect with anti-Catholic manifesto arrested with explosives at cathedral

Washington, D.C. police said they arrested a New Jersey man with hundreds of homemade explosives and a manifesto containing “significant hostility” against Catholics, Jews, the U.S. Supreme Court and a cathedral event because Immigration and Customs was supposed to host an annual event where some justices were expected to attend.

A Metropolitan Police Department officer found 41-year-old Louis D. Geri camped in a green tent in front of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., around 5 a.m. Sunday.

According to an affidavit, police asked Geri to move her tent before the Red Mass event.

Geri allegedly gave it to an officer, according to the document filed in Washington Criminal Court. “I have explosives…”

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The officer requested assistance from the MPD bomb squad. One member identified as Sgt. Wishnick approached Geri from outside her tent, court documents state.

“Do you want me to throw someone out?” Allegedly at him, according to the affidavit. “I’ll test one on the street. There’s a hundred plus.”

He told her to step back.

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Read declaration:

“Nobody’s going to get hurt,” he continued. “There’s going to be a hole in the street. If you just step back, I’ll take that tree out.”

However, his tune allegedly changed when the police said he would be forcibly removed from the scene.

“Several of your people…will die from one of these,” he replied, according to Affidavit.

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Police said 41-year-old Louis Geri set up a tent on the steps outside Saint Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. (Fox News)

Sgt. Wishnick persuaded him to open his tent, where he allegedly saw him holding a butane lighter “stuck” in one hand along with an “unknown white cap-shaped object.”

He allegedly handed over nine pages titled “Written negotiations to avoid destruction of property by detonation of explosives.”

“You’d better let these people go away or you’ll be dead,” Geri told him.

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St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, pictured during Ash Wednesday services in Washington, D.C., on February 22, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Sgt. Wishnick notified other officers in the area and MPD command staff, according to Affidavit. The church’s business manager provided police with written notification that Geri had previously been banned from the property on September 26.

Back, he got up, walked toward a tree and “appeared to be urinating,” according to the affidavit. Police handcuffed him and arrested him there.

The bomb squad allegedly recovered a white-capped bottle filled with yellow liquid and a lighter from his pocket.

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Police said bottles of liquid and possible fireworks were found inside the suspect’s tent. (Fox News)

When they searched the tent, they found “a large cache of improvised destructive devices,” according to the affidavit, “along with writings purportedly depicting significant hostility towards the Catholic Church, members of the Jewish Faith, members of the Jewish Faith, and members of the Jewish Faith.” [the Supreme Court] And [Immigration and Customs Enforcement.]”

Six of the current Supreme Court justices are Catholic and two are Jewish. The court also has a 6-3 conservative majority.

The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle is the Mother Church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and traces its roots back to another church building built in 1840. The current structure was completed in the early 1900s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl (C) and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (R) speak at the end of a previous red mass held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington on September 30, 2012. (Reuters/Benjamin Myers)

The cathedral hosted the funeral of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Last year, she hosted a funeral mass for her sister-in-law Ethel Kennedy, which was attended by a number of dignitaries including presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

St. Mother Teresa visited in the 1970s and visited World War II on different occasions. John Paul and Francis de Popes.

U.S. President Joe Biden, from left, former U.S. President Barack Obama and former U.S. President Bill Clinton during a memorial service for St. Matthew on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The church’s red mass is an annual event held before the start of each year’s Supreme Court term.

Geri’s previous criminal record includes a conviction for indecent exposure in Arizona in 2021, for which she was sentenced to a year in prison.

A Washington judge ordered him without bond on charges that include the hate crime production of a weapon of mass destruction, threats and unlawful entry. He returned to court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.