ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis man appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday to admit to threatening to blow up a local synagogue in 2021.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Cody Steven Rush admitted calling the St. Louis office of the FBI on Nov. 5, 2021, to make his threat.
Rush identified himself and his intended target – the Central Reform Congregation in the Central West End. He told agents he planned to act the following morning when people were inside the synagogue.
He called back later and made the same threat, prosecutors said.
Rush called the FBI a third time and told agents where he was, which was on the same street as the synagogue. Authorities called Rush back and he made threats again.
Officers with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department, and FBI agents went to Rush’s location and arrested him without incident.
Rush allegedly told authorities, “I am feeling suicidal and homicidal. I just feel like killing Jews.”
Rush, 30, pleaded guilty to use of a telephone and instrument of interstate commerce to make a threat. He’ll be sentenced on November 8. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison.