A former New Jersey Marine was arrested Friday and charged with threatening to kill white people and committing a mass shooting, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Joshua Cobb, 23, of Trenton, wrote on social media in December 2022, before joining the Marines last year: ‘I want to cause chaos in the white community’ and ‘I want to erase them,’ said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a statement.
He continued in his December 17, 2022 message by stating that he wanted to carry out a mass shooting in 2023 and: “As of today, I have officially begun planning my attack,” the office said. He also reportedly said he obtained two of the four guns he planned to use.
Federal public defenders listed as representing Cobb did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Cobb joined the Marine Corps and attended basic training in South Carolina from June to October of last year, according to a criminal complaint. He was stationed at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., in February and was released around May 10, the complaint states.
Cobb identified himself as Black in online posts, under the account “1dayUsuffer,” an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit part of the complaint.
He mentioned what he called the struggles of young men in America, and he wrote that they “have so many obstacles against us that we cannot excel, no matter how hard we try.” Especially those like me who are BLACK and come from poverty,” and that he wanted to cause bloodshed, the FBI agent said in the affidavit.
Questioned by the FBI at the Marine base in California, Cobb admitted the social media accounts were his and told agents he continued to have homicidal thoughts, according to the FBI affidavit.
Cobb said he sometimes fantasized about attacking a gym or grocery store frequented by what he called “rich white people” and that wealthier people “don’t know what it’s like to be in a bad way,” an affidavit alleges. He would have said: “So my thing was to like making them suffer. »
No attack was ever carried out. He is charged with one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the prosecutor’s office said.
The Marine Corps did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Monday evening on the nature of the firing, and court documents do not detail the reason.
Cobb waived a preliminary hearing Monday and was held in custody pending a bail hearing Friday, according to federal court records.
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