NEW YORK – A paralegal for the New York City district attorney’s office was arrested after he tried to make explosives to bomb a migrant shelter across the street from his apartment, according to a criminal complaint filed with -in Thursday.
Police said 27-year-old Derek Klever, who worked as a trial preparation assistant in the Queens district attorney’s office, was harassed by parties at the Kamway Lodge in Elmhurst, a small lodge that the town has used to house expiring migrants. from the southern border of the United States with Mexico.
“I know I shouldn’t be doing this, but it’s for Queens County,” he said, according to court records. “This is a war. I wish there was a big one to enough to fly them back to Venezuela.”
Klever admitted to an anonymous acquaintance that he had bought fireworks and was going to combine the material with nails, gasoline and other materials to create a rudimentary explosive.
“I’m not trying to kill, but to hurt,” he said. “I’ve got to teach them a lesson.”
Klever said he tested a version of the homemade explosive and was considering using a drone to drop several bombs on unsuspecting shelter residents.
Police said Klever’s girlfriend agreed to search the apartment earlier this week, where they recovered a BB gun in a child’s bedroom and several fireworks inside closet in larger bedroom.
Subsequent searches revealed other bomb-making materials, including explosives from detonated fireworks wrapped in aluminum foil, long nail cartridges that were also wrapping them in aluminum foil, compressed air bubbles and green wire, according to the complaint.
Klever was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat, illegal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child, among other charges.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Thursday, and his next court date is October 4.
Klever, despite being his lawyer, declined to comment on Friday.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office declined to comment except to say that Klever has been fired and that the investigation is ongoing.
Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigrant Coalition, which advocates for immigrants, said the case underscores how anti-immigrant rhetoric can fuel some city leaders cause violence.
The city’s shelter system is currently home to more than 60,000 migrants and has taken in a total of more than 200,000 as of spring 2022.
“All New Yorkers, regardless of when they arrived here, deserve to live a life free of violence and threats to their safety,” Awawdeh said in a statement. “Our leaders must do better and stop on asylum seekers for any problems seen in New York City.”
2024-09-28 02:42:04
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