A Texas man with white supremacist and Nazi ideologies was arrested on felony charges for allegedly plotting a massive, racist attack involving explosives against Black and Jewish people.
Authorities with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office say 39-year-old Nathan James Henderson was taken into custody on July 12 after they received a “credible tip” about threats of mass violence and possession of illegal explosive components.
He was initially charged with one count of “components of explosives” after authorities executed a search warrant at his home and found materials and chemicals to make bombs.
Investigators also discovered multiple firearms and ammunition, notebooks containing extremist ideology and vague plans to disrupt public venues, 24 grenades with corresponding striker mechanisms, a homemade igniter with remote detonation capability, and nearly 100 metal cylinders believed to be intended for manufacturing blasting caps.
The grenades were inert and deactivated, but a follow-up analysis found they were in “various stages of construction,” leading authorities to believe Henderson was working to turn them into explosive devices.
According to an affidavit cited by local news affiliate KSAT, Henderson’s cousin paid him a visit on July 4.
During that visit, Henderson began making “alarming and extremist” threats to kill Jewish and Black people, along with unnamed government officials, using weapons and homemade explosive devices.
He described himself as a white supremacist and a Nazi, and expressed admiration for New York murder suspect Luigi Mangione, whom he wanted to emulate, the affidavit stated.
He also told his cousin that he would rather commit suicide than be taken into custody after the attack.
During the raid on Henderson’s home, investigators also found letters to other known White supremacists who had been arrested for hate and race-related crimes.
One neighbor who described the community as a multi-racial neighborhood said he drove up just as the raid was happening and saw the bomb squad removing explosive materials from the home.
“We drove up in the middle of it, and we just drove in,” neighbor Mario Ramirez said. “It would’ve blown up the whole neighborhood,” he added about the explosives.
Henderson now faces additional charges, including components of explosives, prohibited weapons, hoax bombs, and terrorism.
He’s the first person in Bexar County to face a terrorism charge under Texas’s newly enacted state law, which classifies the offense as a first-degree felony that carries a penalty of five to 99 years or life in prison.
