A self-described white supremacist was arrested by federal agents on Thursday for sending threats to the jury and witnesses at the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s trial.
Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, was taken into custody by FBI agents at his home in Follansbee, West Virginia.
Lloyd is accused of making ‘threatening social media posts, website comments, and emails’ towards jurors and witnesses at the trial of Robert Bowers, the gunman responsible for the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history.
Bowers was found guilty and sentenced to death for the hate crime last week.
‘Jury trials are a hallmark of the American justice system and attempts to intimidate witnesses or jurors will be met with a strong response,’ US Attorney William Ihlenfeld said. ‘The use of hateful threats in an effort to undermine a trial is especially troubling.’
Additionally, the Justice Department said Lloyd was responsible for a campaign to place anti-Semitic stickers and posters around Jewish areas of Pittsburgh.
Investigators used cell phone records and license plate readers to determine Lloyd was in the Pittsburgh neighborhoods at the same time as the stickers were placed, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
In the public posts and comments he made prior to his arrest, Lloyd called Robert Bowers ‘a hero’ and any juror who voted for his conviction an ‘anti-white criminal.’
Memorials are placed for the victims of at the Tree of Life synagogue after the shooting in 2018 (Picture: EPA)
In his more violent posts, Lloyd called for a ‘lone wolf’ to target Jews and even shoot up the Taylor Swift concert that was occurring at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium in June, according to posts obtained by the Post-Gazette.
Lloyd also reportedly admitted to the flyering, according to emails obtained by the Jewish News Syndicate.
‘We have struck Pittsburgh and shall continue to pass out flyers until Richard Bowers, the great WHITE hero of Pgh, is freed,’ Lloyd wrote.
In the same email, Lloyd promised to ‘make PGH sorry’ if Bowers was found guilty.
Lloyd is a self-described white supremacist who has been in-and-out of prison for the last two decades.
In 2006, he was found not guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend after a jury found he acted in self-defense. He was found guilty of illegally possessing a handgun.
He has since faced legal issues for owning weapons without a license and making terroristic threats in Pennsylvania and Texas.
In 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
According to the Texas DPS, Lloyd made a public social media post where he promised to ‘carry a firearm onto the Texas State Capitol grounds,’ and challenged any police officer to try to stop him.
Lloyd is the self-proclaimed ‘reverend’ of the Church of Ben Klassen, a group named after a 1930s Florida congressman who was openly racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Christian.
Lloyd has been charged with obstruction of justice, transmitting interstate threats, and witness tampering. If found guilty, he faces up to 35 years in prison.
