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Robert Fehring, of Suffolk County, entered the guilty plea on Wednesday, Feb. 23, according to an announcement from Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“In pleading guilty today, the defendant admits that he sent hate-filled communications that threatened mass shootings, bombings and other fatal attacks, to members of the LGBTQ+ community,” Peace said. “This Office will use all of its available law enforcement tools to protect the safety and civil rights of the LGBTQ+ community and every other community. We will not tolerate hateful threats intended to invoke fear and division, and we will hold accountable those who make or act on such threats.”
Between at least 2013 and 2021, Fehring sent threatening letters to individuals associated with the LGBTQ+ community, according to the announcement.
In one of the letters, Fehring threatened a violent attack of the 2021 New York City Pride March, Peace said.
He also threatened to bomb an LGBTQ+ affiliated barbershop in Brooklyn, the report said.
Fehring mailed dozens of threatening letters to businesses, elected officials, and individuals, the US Attorney's Office reported.
According to the US Attorney's Office, the FBI’s Civil Rights Squad and the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force executed a search warrant at Fehring's Bayport home on Nov. 18, and found the following:
- Copies of letters containing threats
- Supplies used to mail threatening letters
- 20 LGBTQ+ Pride flags that appeared identical to flags stolen from flagpoles in Sayville in July 2021
- Reconnaissance-style photographs from a Pride event on June of 2021 in East Meadow
- Two loaded shotguns
- Hundreds of rounds of ammunition
- Two stun guns
- A stamped envelope addressed to an LGBTQ+ affiliated attorney that contained the remains of a dead bird
- Electronic devices with internet searches for Fehring's victims and related individuals, events, and businesses
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