Man Admits Making Anti-Semitic Death Threats In Stratford: Feds

STRATFORD, CT — A New York man pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal hate crime charges in connection with making anti-Semitic death threats to a Stratford resident, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut.

Christopher Rascoll, 49, of Blauvelt, was arrested in June 2020 following an investigation by the FBI with assistance from the Stratford Police Department.

Editor's note: This story contains anti-Semitic language attributed to Rascoll by law enforcement.

On Dec. 23, 2019, the first day of Hanukkah, Rascoll began sending threatening text messages to the Stratford resident, who is Jewish, according to the news release. In several of the messages, which continued into May 2020, Rascoll threatened to murder or seriously injure the resident, the news release said, adding he also threatened to blow up the person's house and car.

“Some of Rascoll’s threatening text messages contained anti-Semitic references to the Holocaust,” officials wrote in the news release. “On December 23, 2019, Rascoll sent a message that included the words ‘Suns about to go down. It would be a shame if your house were used to light the menorah. Or turned in a gas chamber.’ On April 8, 2020, Rascoll wrote ‘I’m going to kill you. You better be gone because if you’re in [the victim’s housing community] Easter weekend I’m going to stick you in an oven. Or I’m going to shoot you.’”

Rascoll pleaded guilty to one count of interference with the right to fair housing, a hate crime, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, and one count of sending threatening communications, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.

Rascoll, who has been detained since his arrest on June 26, 2020, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27.

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