CRIME
Man Arrested for Threatening LGBTQ Orgs in New York
Robert Fehring, 74, allegedly targeted queer leaders from 2013 until this year
BY MATT TRACY
A 74-year-old Long Island
man was arrested by
the feds on December
6 after he spent years
targeting LGBTQ individuals, organizations,
and events in New
York City and Long Island — including
New York City’s main Pride
festivities — with threats to bomb,
shoot up, and otherwise terrorize
the queer community in the area,
according to federal prosecutors.
Robert Fehring, who resides in
Bayport, New York, allegedly delivered
numerous letters with death
threats, used photographs of Pride
events in his menacing messages,
and was found to be in possession
of two loaded shotguns, several
rounds of ammunition, a machete
dressed up in the colors of the
American Flag, and a DVD titled
“Underground Build Your Own
Silencer system,” according to an
unsealed criminal complaint in
federal court in Central Islip, New
York. Fehring was charged with
making threats using US mail and
faces up to fi ve years in prison if he
is convicted.
Fehring appeared in court on
December 6 before Magistrate
Judge Steven I. Locke and was
released on $100,000 bond. He is
restricted to home detention with
location monitoring, according to
prosecutors. He is not allowed to
have any fi rearms or “destructive
devices,” is barred from contacting
any of his alleged victims, and
cannot go to the places he is said
to have targeted.
According to the complaint, Fehring
wrote or sent at least 60 letters
between June 2013 and September
2021. Many of the threats issued
by Fehring were consistent: The
language was similar throughout
his letters and he later admitted
to stamping many of them with a
“confi dential” stamp to create the
perception that the letters were important.
“As alleged, the defendant’s
hate-fi lled invective and threats
of violence directed at members
of the LGBTQ+ community have
NYC Pride’s 2021 events were allegedly targeted by a man who was arrested by federal authorities on December 6.
no place in our society and will be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law,” United States Attorney
for the Eastern District of New
York Breon Peace said in a written
statement. “This Offi ce is fi rmly
committed to protecting the civil
rights of all members of every community
in this district, including
the LGBTQ+ community and other
minority communities.”
While Fehring’s actions are said
to date back to at least 2013, he appeared
to escalate his threats this
year. In May, Fehring apparently
delivered a letter to the executive
director of New York City Pride, or
Heritage of Pride (HOP), in which
he threatened to attack the 2021
Pride March. While the complaint
did not name any victims, HOP’s
interim director at the time was
David A. Correa (HOP has since
announced the appointment of
a new executive director, Sandra
Pérez).
“As you f****** scum are preparing
to waltz your fruity, freaky,
f***** asses down the NY parade
lanes, we warn you that there will
be radio-controlled devices placed
at numerous strategic places, and
fi repower aimed at you from other
strategic places,” Fehring said
in the letter to HOP’s leader, according
to authorities. We’ve had
enough!!!” Fehring warned HOP’s
leader that an attack on the city’s
Pride events would “make the 2016
Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting
look like a cakewalk,” referring
to the June 2016 mass shooting
at the LGBTQ Pulse nightclub
in Florida, where Omar Mateen
MICHAEL LUONGO
killed 49 people and wounded 53
others.
HOP’s march was scaled-down
event this year due to the coronavirus
pandemic, and an alternative
march known as the Reclaim
Pride Coalition’s Queer Liberation
March drew tens of thousands of
people. That event was not mentioned
in the complaint.
“We take any and all violent
threats seriously and report them
to the appropriate authorities,”
Pérez said in a written statement
on December 6. “We received
threatening letters earlier this
year and reported them. We appreciate
the work of the Justice
Department in investigating this
situation. We are cooperating in
➤ FEHRING, continued on p.5
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