Man sentenced to 6 years for hate crimes targeting Christian churches, including in Colorado
FILE – The seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is displayed at its headquarters in Washington, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Zimnako Salah, 46, of Phoenix, was convicted by a Sacramento jury in March of strapping a backpack around a toilet in a Christian church in Roseville, California, which was intended to be a hoax bomb threat, according to prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said that Salah’s goal was to obstruct the religious worship activities there.
The Sacramento jury additionally found that Salah targeted the church because of the congregants’ religion, which made the offense a hate crime, according to the attorney’s office.
“Today’s sentencing sends a clear message: those who target people because of their faith will face the full force of federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a release. “The Department of Justice will continue to protect the rights of all people of faith to worship and live free from fear, and we will hold accountable anyone who threatens or harms them.”
Evidence presented at trial showed that Salah traveled to four Christian churches from September to November 2023, while wearing black backpacks. Salah planted the backpacks in two churches, instigating fears that they contained bombs, but at two other churches, Salah was confronted by a security guard before he had a chance to plant the backpacks.
One of those churches was located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, near South Dayton Street and East Belleview Avenue. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office shared in 2023 that Salah had been greeted by a uniformed deputy who was working off-duty at the church, and did enter the facility’s bathroom, but left while still wearing the backpack.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Salah had been building a bomb capable of fitting inside a backpack while he was making these threats. A bomb technician with the Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly seized items from Salah’s storage unit that served as components of an improvised explosive device.
Investigators also found that Salah had been consuming extremist propaganda online. Specifically, the records showed that Salah had searched for videos of “infidels dying” and watched videos of terrorists murdering individuals.
Salah had also taken a cellphone video days before the crimes wherein he said, “America, we are going to destroy it,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the Roseville, San Diego and San Diego Harbor police departments in California, and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado.
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