White supremacist who allegedly praised Christchurch shooting arrested for lying to FBI

FBI agents on Thursday arrested a 22-year-old white supremacist who allegedly discussed carrying out attacks in the United States similar to the mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, according to an affidavit first obtained by HuffPost.

Thomas Alonzo Bolin, a resident of Greece, N.Y., maintained a Facebook group called Odin’s Warriors that purports to combine worship of ancient Norse gods and white supremacist beliefs, according to the affidavit.

{mosads}Austin Witkowski, a cousin of Bolin’s, allegedly called for a reenactment of the massacre in the U.S. on Facebook Messenger under the name “Ragnar Odinson,” encouraging another Facebook user to buy guns, ammunition and food and saying he was willing to “do something as of next week” in Baltimore, according to the affidavit.

Bolin, using a Facebook account under the name “Peter Vincent,” allegedly exchanged messages with Witkowski praising the Christchurch shooting and on March 16 expressing frustration that he had broken his arm in a car accident. When Witkowski said “there goes all that shit then,” Bolin responded “[o]nly takes one arm to fire a glock,” according to the affidavit.

When FBI agents interviewed Bolin, he told them he wanted Muslims out of the country for “contributing to a corruption of his culture” and told them he did not possess a weapon in New York, but upon searching the room he was renting agents discovered a shotgun depicted in a photo on Bolin’s Facebook account. Bolin was arrested for lying to the FBI.