Joey George, 37, is charged with two counts of interstate threats, including calls to a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, not far from the Tops location where 10 people were killed in a racist attack in May.
According to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, George called a Buffalo Tops supermarket on Tuesday and asked a worker who answered the phone how many black people were in the store. He told the worker there was a chance he was already at or near the store and that if he didn’t see anyone in the store, he would go to the Tops supermarket where the fatal shooting took place in May, according to the complaint. This place had just reopened a few days before the call was allegedly made.
George, who identified himself as a man named “Peter” in the call, said he was “a very good shot and could take people out of the parking lot” and said he had assault rifles and other weapons, according to the complaint
CNN has reached out to the federal public defender’s office for comment on George’s case.
Prosecutors said George called the store again Wednesday, “called it a ‘race war,’ and said, ‘This is what happens in a blue state.’
George, of Lynnwood, Washington, is also accused in the complaint of calling a restaurant in San Bruno, Calif., on May 12 and threatening to shoot “any black or Hispanic customers if the restaurant was not closed within twenty minutes “. George allegedly told a San Bruno police officer who called his cell phone that he wanted to “attack black people and strike fear into the black community in the Bay Area,” the complaint states.
Prosecutors linked the calls to George based on cell phone records of the number that made the calls, according to the complaint. Prosecutors say George has a history of making racial threats using the same number, including to businesses in Maryland, Connecticut and Washington.
“The Buffalo community is trying to heal from the horrific shooting at a Tops grocery store. I can’t imagine the kind of fear that this hate fueled threats created in those who are just trying to go about their daily lives,” he said US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Nick Brown. “We cannot tolerate this kind of hatred in our community and we will not stand by while people seek to terrorize others in our country.”
George is being held at a federal detention center in SeaTac, Washington, and is expected to appear in court Friday at 5 pm Eastern for an initial appearance.