Man Considered Staging Machete Attack At Menlo Park Mall: Feds

EDISON, NJ — A South Jersey man was so enraged by the presence of African-American people at Menlo Park Mall that he considered staging a machete attack, documents unsealed in federal court say.

Richard Tobin of Brooklawn revealed his thoughts about the potential attack while being interviewed by FBI officials earlier this year in connection to a pair of synagogue vandalism incidents in the Midwest, court records show.

Tobin has been charged with conspiring to injure, threaten, or prevent another person's rights under the Constitution, as an alleged member of a white supremacist hate group.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Tobin told FBI officials that during a trip to Menlo Park Mall, the presence of African-Americans shoppers caused him to become "enraged." He kept a machete in his car, and thought about using it to "let loose" on other the other shoppers with it.

It's not clear why Tobin did not act on that rage. He allegedly told federal investigators that "he would act on his feelings if he was more frequently surrounded by the things that triggered him," such as ethic, religious, or racial minorities. If Tobin believed that he was dying, or that "failure was imminent," he would also be more likely to "go out in a blaze of glory," presumably through violence, investigators said.

The records don't say when Tobin was last at the mall, or when the incident described took place. Brooklawn, where Tobin lives, is just over an hour away from the mall by car.

Tobin, who officials say is the member of a white supremacist group that had "proclaimed war against minority communities within the United States and abroad," is also accused of orchestrating attacks against two synagogues in the Midwest thus past September.

Officials say Tobin talked to other members of the group online, directing them to spray paint swastikas and other antisemitic words spray painted on temples in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Tobin allegedly admitted to directing fellow group members to "tag the sh--" out of the synagogues with spray-painted hate symbols as part of the group's "Operation Kristallnacht." That title refers to the Night Of Broken Glass, a night when Nazis destroyed and ransacked Jewish homes, businesses, schools and hospitals in November 1938.

Many of Tobin's feelings were "triggered by the state of the country," he allegedly told investigators during a Halloween interview. Just standing in Times Square was enough to set off his emotions, court records show.

Tobin appeared in federal court in Camden on Friday, where he was ordered detained ahead of a detention hearing set for December.