Vegas Terrorist Targeted Gay Bar, Synagogue
White supremacist drew up planned attack on LGBTQ club, feds say
BY MATT TRACY
The FBI busted a Las
Vegas-based white supremacist
after he allegedly
talked about making
bombs, attacking a Jewish
synagogue, and planning a violent
ambush on a gay bar, according
to the US Attorney’s Offi ce in Nevada.
Conor Climo, a 23-year-old security
guard employed by Allied Universal,
was arrested and hit with
an unregistered fi rearm charge on
August 8 after authorities found
bomb-making parts in his home.
The criminal complaint states
that Climo carried out surveillance
on a Las Vegas gay bar between
June 19 and July 8 of this year
“and described in great detail the
geographical layout of the area.”
Authorities found a sketch in his
home outlining an attack on the
bar. Climo had drawn two infantry
squads — one inside and one outside
— shooting those in the bar,
authorities said.
It is not clear which synagogue
or gay bar was targeted. The federal
government’s statement regarding
Climo’s arrest only states
that the gay bar was located on
Fremont Street in Las Vegas. Reports
in local media did not pinpoint
which bar was specifi ed and
RASHAWN BRAZELL, from p.12
ed missing.
“There was a witness who
knows the victim from school who
saw him being stabbed by two individuals
on a subway platform,”
Strauss told Gay City News.
The prosecution has said that
it is aware of that stabbing and
it occurred after Brazell’s body
was found, Strauss said, but the
defense still wants to talk to that
witness. Govan is entitled to evidence
that tends to prove his innocence,
and Joanne Quinones,
the judge in the case, instructed
the Brooklyn District Attorney’s
Offi ce to give those names to the
defense.
KTNV LAS VEGASS
A Las Vegas man, Conor Climo, seen here in a 2016 video as part of a neighborhood patrol and since
believed to have been involved with white supremacist groups, is in custody after he allegedly planned
attacks on Jewish and LGBTQ establishments.
search results indicate that there
are multiple gay bars located on
that street.
Climo, who the feds say once
quoted Hitler on a social media
platform, allegedly talked about
preparing Molotov cocktails and
improvised explosive devices to
use in attacking a synagogue. He
also tried unsuccessfully to recruit
others, including a homeless person,
to aid his terrorist efforts, authorities
say.
According to the complaint, federal
authorities fi rst started probing
“The people are directed to turn
over the names of those witnesses
so the defense can investigate,”
Quinones said.
The more signifi cant challenge
for the prosecution remained unresolved
on August 13. Earlier this
year, the defense served an alibi
notice on the prosecution saying
that Govan was attending a driving
school in St. Louis during the
week that Brazell was killed.
“The limited records they had
verifi ed he was enrolled in the
program and was credited with a
signifi cant number of hours that
week,” Strauss told Gay City News
following a June 19 hearing.
While statements made in court
indicate that the records do not defi
Climo in April when they found
out he was communicating with
members of the white supremacist
group Atomwaffen Division (AWD),
which pledges allegiance to the National
Socialist Movement.
The complaint states that AWD
encourages attacks “on the federal
government, including critical infrastructure,
minorities, homosexuals,
and Jews,” and mobilizes
its members to prepare for a race
war.
In 2017, according to authorities,
Climo communicated with
nitively place Govan in St. Louis
at the time Brazell was murdered,
the records at least suggest the
prosecution may have to explain a
more complex timeline for the killing
in which the defendant traveled
from St. Louis to Brooklyn to
commit the murder.
Danielle Reddan, an assistant
district attorney who is prosecuting
the case with Leila Rosini,
a senior assistant district attorney,
told Quinones that her offi ce
had subpoenaed records from the
school.
“The people are continuing to
investigate,” Reddan said on August
13.
During the June 19 hearing,
Rosini said, “We do have that he
CRIME
members of the Feuerkrieg Division,
which has been tied to AWD,
and he expressed a desire to take
“generally different” action against
black people, Jewish folks, and
members of the LGBTQ community.
“Threats of violence motivated by
hate and intended to intimidate or
coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ
communities have no place in this
Country,” US Attorney Nicholas A.
Trutanich of the District of Nevada
said in a written statement. “Law
enforcement in Nevada remains
determined to use the full weight
of our investigative resources to
prevent bias-motivated violence
before it happens. I commend our
partners who identifi ed the threat
and took swift and appropriate action
to ensure justice and protect
the community.”
The case is just the latest in a
disturbing ongoing trend of white
men plotting and sometimes successfully
carrying out violent terrorist
attacks across the nation. In
one of the most recent attacks, a
man who killed 22 people and injured
dozens of others in a shooting
in El Paso, Texas, on August
3 had ties to white supremacist
groups and had warned of an “Hispanic
invasion” of Texas.
Climo faces 10 years behind
bars if he is convicted.
did not complete the school.”
In 2016, the cold case units in
the NYPD and the Brooklyn District
Attorney’s Offi ce matched
Govan’s DNA to DNA found under
the fi ngernails of Sharabia Thomas,
a 17-year-old whose body was
discovered in two laundry bags in
an alley in Brooklyn’s Bushwick
neighborhood. Govan was convicted
on kidnapping and murder
charges in the 2004 Thomas killing
last year. He was sentenced to
25-to-life in that case.
At the time, police determined
that Govan lived across the street
from Brazell. The prosecution has
other evidence that it has not publicly
disclosed.
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