PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man has been arrested and charged with making bomb threats against multiple Jewish hospitals in and around New York City, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI New York Field Office. One of the bomb threats caused a hospital on Long Island to go on lockdown and partially evacuate.
Domagoj Patkovic, 31, is charged with conspiring and making threats concerning explosives, conspiring and transmitting threatening communications, and conveying false information concerning explosives, according to the news release. He was arrested Tuesday at his home in Portland and will make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Oregon Wednesday.
"As alleged, the defendant and his coconspirators, motivated by their hatred of Jewish people, targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York City and on Long Island with hoax bomb threats, needlessly endangering patients and staff by creating chaos and alarm," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
Patkovic in particular made threats during at least six calls to hospitals and care centers, according to the news release, as well as one call with law enforcement who had responded to a hospital. No explosive devices were ever found, but in addition to the one lockdown and evacuation, local police also responded several times to conduct bomb sweeps.
If convicted, Patkovic could face up to 155 years in prison, according to the news release.
The calls were made using a web-based service and all took place in May and September 2021, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court. Prosecutors also filed a request for Patkovic to be held in jail until trail, contending that he represents a danger to the community and a flight risk.
The flight-risk filing includes additional details about the case, including that Patkovic allegedly livestreamed himself making the calls on the online messaging platform Discord. He used antisemitic slurs on nearly all of the calls, and targeted at least one hospital more than once; the document states that a hospital official recognized the caller's voice from a prior incident.
FBI agents interviewed Patkovic in July 2023 while "responding to the defendant's initial contact to provide information regarding an individual with whom he had a dispute," according to the filing. During the interview, he admitted knowing about at least one of the bomb threat calls but denied having spoken on them. He also threatened, during the interview, to murder a person who had listened to at least some of the calls.
The filing also details an "unrelated incident" in which police obtained an alleged photo of Patkovic performing a Nazi salute while crouched over the body of an unconscious man. According to the court documents, Patkovic claimed he had attacked the man in self-defense and claimed to have killed him, though police in Portland eventually concluded that the man had died "under apparently separate circumstances."
Patkovic was previously convicted for brandishing a replica firearm in 2011 and carrying a concealed dagger in 2012, according to the filing. There was an incident in 2018 in which he claimed on Facebook to have found a bomb on a bus, though when police responded he claimed it had been a joke, and he has no convictions stemming from the incident.