Washington, D.C. police arrested Louis D. Geri, a 41-year-old man from New Jersey, after they discovered him camping outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle with homemade explosives and a manifesto expressing significant animosity toward Catholics, Jews, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The incident occurred around 5 a.m. on Sunday, just hours before the annual Red Mass event, where several members of the U.S. Supreme Court were expected to attend.
According to the affidavit filed in Washington’s criminal court, Metropolitan Police Department officers secured the area ahead of the event, which is known as the Red Mass, and requested Geri to move his tent. When he refused, the officer noted, ‘You might want to stay back and call the federales,’ to which Geri allegedly responded, ‘I have explosives…’ The officer then called for assistance from the MPD bomb squad due to the potential threat.
Sgt. Wishnick, a member of the bomb squad, approached Geri from outside his tent and allegedly asked, ‘Do you want me to throw one out?’ Geri reportedly said, ‘I’ll test one out in the street. I have a hundred plus of them.’ He then told the officer to step back, claiming, ‘No one will get hurt,’ before his tone changed when told he would be forcibly removed from the scene.
‘Several of your people are gonna…die from one of these,’ Geri allegedly told Sergeant Wishnick, according to the affidavit. After the officer convinced him to open the tent, a butane lighter ‘clenched’ in one hand was found along with an ‘unknown white cap-shaped object.’ He also handed her nine pages titled, ‘Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives.’
When the officers searched the tent, they discovered a ‘large cache of handmade destructive devices’ and writings that allegedly revealed his significant animosity toward the Catholic Church, members of the Jewish faith, members of the Supreme Court, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Six of the current Supreme Court justices are Catholic, and two are Jewish, with the court having a 6-3 conservative majority.
The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, the Mother Church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, has a storied history, dating back to a church building erected in 1840. The current structure was completed in the early 1900s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cathedral hosted the funeral of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and last year, the funeral Mass for his sister-in-law, Ethel Kennedy, which was attended by numerous dignitaries, including Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton. St. Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Francis have also visited the church over the years.
The Red Mass is an annual event held before the start of each year’s Supreme Court term. Geri’s prior criminal record includes a 2021 conviction for indecent exposure in Arizona, which resulted in a one-year prison sentence. A Washington judge ordered Geri without bond on charges including the alleged hate crime manufacture of a weapon of mass destruction, making threats, and unlawful entry, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday. The case underscores the ongoing tensions within American society concerning free speech, religious freedom, and national security threats.