Seattle-Area Man Accused Of Racist Threats To Be Detained Pending Trial

SEATTLE (AP) – A suburban Seattle man accused of a months-long campaign of phoning racist threats to businesses across the country – including threatening to shoot Black customers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York – has been ordered detained pending trial.

Joey George, 37, of Lynnwood, was arrested last week and was in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday.

According to prosecutors, George phoned a Buffalo grocery store twice in July threatening to shoot Black people and ranting about a “race war.”

He did not call the same Tops Friendly Supermarket in Buffalo where a shooter killed 10 Black people on May 14, but he referenced that attack in his threat, prosecutors said.