Man who posted plans on Facebook to kill Jews is jailed for a year
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Man who posted plans on Facebook to kill Jews is jailed for a year

Dakota Reed pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Jewish people after the ADL tipped off the FBI about the posts

Facebook (Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)
Facebook (Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

A Washington state man who pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Jews was sentenced to one year in jail.

Dakota Reed, 20, was arrested in December weeks after the Anti-Defamation League tipped off the FBI about social media posts threatening to kill Jews praying in a synagogue or kids in school. He was charged with two felonies.

Reed was not charged with a hate crime, since his posts skirted the letter of the law under the Washington state statute.

He pleaded guilty in May to two counts of threats to bomb or injure property for his hate speech on several fake Facebook accounts, which were registered under pseudonyms.

“I would just like to apologise and let you know I’m remorseful,” Reed said Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court, the local Heraldnet publication reported.

One year in prison is the maximum sentence allowed according to the charges.

In his social media posts, Reed never named a particular person or place he would target, but indicated he would shoot up a synagogue in 2025.

Reed also claimed to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan and said he wanted to emulate Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine worshippers in a South Carolina church in 2015.

Out on bond, Reed continued to post threats on social media.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: