A sentencing date has not been announced. "Anonymous threats against members of our community will eventually be uncovered, and those who are responsible for them will be held accountable."įehring faces up to five years in prison following his guilty plea.
"Today's guilty plea further highlights Fehring's intentions, and underscores the FBI's commitment to vigorously investigating civil rights violations," FBI New York Field Office Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J.
Each time I received one of these letters, I had to worry about my Mom who lived with us, think twice about starting my car, think twice about getting the mail and throwing out the garbage. "I can't understand what it's like to carry around that much hate, but I do know is what it is like to be the recipient of that hate. I have received more than one dozen letters from him, each getting more hateful, vile, disgusting and dangerous as he threatened to kill me at my home, workplace and out in the community. Fehring is the first step in what I hope will be a maximum sentence for the crimes he has committed over the last 10 years," David Kilmnick, president and CEO of the LGBT Network and someone who received several letters from Fehring, said in a statement to Newsweek on Thursday. In searches of Fehring's home, authorities allegedly found more threatening letters, LGBTQ flags that had been stolen in the area, along with "two loaded shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two stun guns, and a stamped envelope addressed to an LGBTQ+-affiliated attorney containing the remains of a dead bird," the DOJ said. The threat from Robert Fehring, a 74-year-old retired teacher, said the amount of "firepower" at the parade would "make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk," referring to the 2016 shooting that killed nearly 50 people and wounded dozens more, according to the Department of Justice. A New York man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to mailing more than 20 letters containing threats to shoot, bomb and otherwise attack LGBTQ organizations and businesses in the area for several years, including a threat to plant bombs at the 2021 New York City Pride Parade.