13-year-old charged with planning mass shooting at Ohio synagogue

A 13-year-old boy has been accused of planning a mass shooting at a synagogue in Stark County, Ohio. Authorities say the minor caused panic and disorderly conduct after threatening a Jewish center in Canton on an online platform.

"The teen faces juvenile counts of inducing panic and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. The boy's trial is set for Dec. 20 in Stark County Family Court," explained the local newspaper The Canton Repository, which had access to the court documents.

"He created a detailed plan to complete a mass shooting"

Likewise, the indictment indicates that the defendant posted "a detailed plan to complete a mass shooting at the Temple Israel on the Discord platform which was reported to law enforcement and required an immediate investigatory response and notification of public individuals and agencies including the school system which caused significant public alarm within those agencies."

Discord is a social instant messaging platform that allows people to communicate through voice calls, video calls and text messages. Users can share also multimedia files. Users can communicate privately or in virtual groups.

The situation arises at a time when attacks against the Jewish community have increased. According to the latest FBI report, antisemitic hate crimes increased by 25% from 2021 to 2022. Additionally, the agency indicated that antisemitism accounted for more than half of all reported religion-based hate crimes.