Man faces up to 155 years in prison if convicted of anti-Semitic bomb threats against retirement homes and hospitals

Federal authorities have arrested an Oregon man in connection with anti-Semitic bomb threats against Jewish hospitals and nursing homes in New York, including one that provides hospice and geriatric care.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York announced Tuesday that it had charged Domagoj Patkovic, 31, of Portland, Oregon, with making a series of anonymous false bomb threats in 2021.

“It is alleged that the defendant and his co-conspirators, motivated by their hatred of Jews, targeted Jewish hospitals and nursing homes in New York City and Long Island with fake bomb threats, needlessly endangering patients and staff by creating chaos and alarm,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace in a press release.

Most of the facilities targeted by the anti-Semitic threats were hospitals, but one of the calls was made to a call center for a network of hospices and senior living facilities with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, according to an indictment. The call apparently went to the organization's call center and was routed to the nurse on duty at her home. The caller stated that “there are bombs all over your facility” and made anti-Semitic threats to kill Jews.

The defendant allegedly made at least six separate calls containing bomb threats to hospitals and broadcast those calls live to others via an online social media and electronic communications service, the U.S. Attorney's press release said. On at least one occasion in September 2021, a fake bomb threat led to the partial evacuation and lockdown of an entire Long Island hospital, but no explosive devices were found at any of the locations searched, the press release said.

The defendant was eventually tracked down and interviewed by FBI agents in Oregon in July 2023. They responded to the defendant's first contact and provided information about a person with whom he had had an argument. During the interview, the defendant allegedly admitted to participating in swatting and bomb threat calls along with others, according to the indictment. If convicted, he faces up to 155 years in prison.

While the indictment mentions other co-conspirators, no other individuals were named in Tuesday's indictment.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York declined to provide names or further details about the facilities involved. He said the defendant was arrested in Oregon and will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.