A white supremacist who alongside his cousin praised the Christchurch shooting and expressed support for a similar attack in the U.S. has been charged with lying to the FBI, after he denied owning a shotgun which was then discovered in his room.
Thomas Bolin, who lives in New York, managed a white supremacist Facebook group in which his cousin, Austin Witkowski, called for a reenactment of the New Zealand terror attack that claimed the lives of 50 Muslims who were worshiping in mosques.
Bolin, who said online that the Christchurch shooting ‘did his heart good’, was charged with making a false statement to the FBI during their investigation.
He was charged after agents questioned him outside his girlfriend’s house Saturday, asking him if he possessed any guns. Bolin admitted to having possessed guns while living in Kansas City but said the guns were legal there.
He denied ever possessing a gun while in New York. However, a search of Bolin’s rented room found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun and several boxes of ammunition.
They also discovered the mask which appeared in the Facebook photo.
Thomas Bolin, who lives in New York, managed a white supremacist Facebook group in which his cousin, Austin Witkowski, called for a reenactment of the New Zealand terror attack that claimed the lives of 50 Muslims who were worshiping in mosques
Bolin, who used the aliases Folk Odinist and Paul Vincent, when speaking online, discussed a possible attack in Baltimore and joined various white supremacist groups to praise the tragic events in New Zealand.
The FBI said Bolin talked to his cousin about the New Zealand gunman, telling him, ‘Brugh dude killed 40 muslims.’
Witkowski responded with a heart emoji and the word ‘lovely’.
According to an affidavit from an FBI special agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Buffalo, Witkowski – who went under the alias Ragnar Odinson – sent threatening messages via Facebook Messenger on the day of the Christchurch attack and ‘indicated that he was willing to ‘do something as of next week.”
In the messages, he encouraged another individual to buy firearms, ammunition and food, and said he would travel to meet the individual the following week for the attack.
The next day, Bolin messaged his cousin and said his car was wrecked and he had broken his arm.
‘There goes all that shit then,’ Witkowski replied, police say.
‘Only takes one arm to fire a glock,’ Bolin replied.
Accused Christchurch massacre gunman Brenton Harrison Tarrant (pictured) made a white power gesture from behind a glass window, during his first court appearance in March
Witkowski then said: ‘I guess I’ll do this shit my self. I’m not waiting months and months or a week. It was supposed to be done by Halloween’. He was arrested the next day, on March 17, for a separate incident.
Bolin also wrote on Facebook about ‘the invasion happening at the southern border’ and the ‘destruction of our homeland by Islamic trash.’
Witkowski shared the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto and video, responding ‘Lovely’ when Bolin wrote, ‘Brugh dude killed 40 muslims.’
Bolin also wrote to his girlfriend that the victims in New Zealand were ‘muslim rats they would gladly do the worse to you or me’ and that it ‘does his [heart] good to see [them] run down.’
Prosecutors also say Bolin wrote in one message that what the Christchurch shooter did ‘was fucked up but politically he is making some points his focus was on the fact that the elites want to kill off the white race and replace us with a demographic they can control better.
‘Which is fairly obvious if you look into it. His solution was extremely radical and misguided but its a good read ill send you the link to it if you want its about a 30 min read.’
In an interview with FBI agents on March 30, Bolin said he wanted Muslims out of the country because they were ‘contributing to a corruption of his culture,’ according to the FBI affidavit.
He claimed he did not possess a weapon in New York state, where he had moved in May 2018.
But FBI agents searched the room he was renting and found a red devil mask and a shotgun, both of which were depicted in a photo on Bolin’s Facebook account.