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A 19-year-old has been charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States after investigators say he had ties to Neo-Nazi “dark web” chat groups and made bomb threats against his former school, journalists, government officials and the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria.

Per The New York Times, John William Kirby Kelley had begun making calls around November 2018 when he was still a student at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He placed a number of fake phone threats, a practice called swatting, saying that he had a gun and had spread pipe bombs across campus. He also placed a call to a non-emergency number that month saying that he was going to harm the congregation at the historic black church.

“The caller identified himself as George and advised that he placed three pipe bombs at the Alfred Street Baptist Church and was going to blow it up,” the affidavit said. “The caller stated the word shooting and that the caller was going to kill everyone at the church.”

The Alexandria Police Department surrounded the church and evacuated all members before the FBI determined that the threat was fake and came from the same web-based phone service used from the ODU threat.

RELATED: Rev. Howard John Wesley Announces Sabbatical From Alfred Street Baptist Church

RELATED: Historically Black Church Donates Money To Help Howard University Students Pay Off Debts [VIDEO]

Neo-Nazi Arrested, Charged With Making Threats Against Historic Black Church  was originally published on praisehouston.com