In conjunction with an investigation into threats against the Jewish community, two males with access to firearms were detained early on Saturday at New York City’s Penn Station, according to authorities.
A Glock semiautomatic handgun, a sizable hunting knife, and a swastika armband were found during searches of the suspects, their possessions, and a house, according to two senior law enforcement sources.
The suspects were identified by the New York Police Department as Matthew Mahrer, 22, of the city’s Upper West Side, and Christopher Brown, 21, both of Aquebogue, New York, who were both detained on suspicion of criminal possession of a firearm and making terrorist threats.
It wasn’t immediately obvious whether the suspects have hired a lawyer.
Senior law enforcement officials claimed that when Brown was apprehended at the railway station, he was wearing the swastika armband.
According to a statement from MTA Police Chief John Mueller, the pair was stopped at Penn Station after MTA police, who had been briefed by the multijurisdictional Joint Terrorism Task Force on the investigation of the threat, noticed and detained the couple there.
“After stopping and positively identifying the persons of interest, the MTA PD officers conducted a search and recovered a large hunting knife,” he said.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said in a statement that authorities first identified “a developing threat to the Jewish community” Friday.
He claimed that the joint task team got to work right away “gathering information, identifying people behind it, and operationally neutralizing their potential to harm.”
Online threats against the Jewish community, according to three sources in law enforcement. The Glock handgun and a 30-round magazine were discovered during the search of one of the suspects’ homes, which took place before the arrests, according to those sources.
According to law enforcement sources, both individuals had been observed visiting and leaving that house.
The possibility of filing federal charges in the case was under consideration, according to the investigators.
The “sharp-eyed MTA police officers” who discovered the criminals early on Saturday were commended by the NYPD.
