A 20-year-old man was arrested in Cary, North Carolina, over the weekend for ethnic intimidation after he threatened a synagogue.
Captain Randall Rhyne with the Cary Police Department said William Josephus Warden went to Congregation Sha’arei Shalom Saturday and rang the doorbell. A congregant answered the door. Rhyne said Warden made anti-Semitic comments and warned the congregant to beware of Nov. 5.
Rhyne said someone from the synagogue called the police to report the incident Sunday morning and Warden was arrested later that day. He was also charged for a separate incident for putting up a cross in a city park and burning it in October. Warden is jailed on a $20,000 bond.
Rhyne said it’s uncommon for the Cary Police Department to get reports of ethnic intimidation. The department takes all threats seriously, but he said there has been heightened sensitivity to these concerns after 11 people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue Oct. 27 during Saturday morning services.