https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/antisemitic-live-streamer-broadcast-threats-144700432.html
https://archive.ph/KmxYZ
John Annese, New York Daily News
Wed, July 23, 2025 at 7:47 AM PDT
4 min read
An antisemitic live streamer who made bomb threats to Jewish hospitals as part of a sick game of bigoted one-upmanship with his online Discord pals was sentenced by a Brooklyn judge to five years behind bars Wednesday.
Domagoj Patkovic, 32, who was once photographed making a “Sieg Heil” Nazi salute over an unconscious man’s body, learned his fate in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday. He admitted earlier this year he conspired to call in a half-dozen bomb threats at Jewish hospitals in New York City and on Long Island.
As part of his plea deal, Patkovic, of Portland, Ore., admitted to all six threats, made between May and September of 2021.
He started with two calls on May 18, 2021, to a Jewish hospital in Queens and a Jewish hospice and senior care network with offices across the city, claiming he had set a series of bombs, according to the feds.
On May 24, 2021, he called the same Queens hospital, saying, “I’m gonna kill you k–es,” according to court filings.
He made more calls to Jewish hospitals in Queens and Nassau County on Sept. 15, claiming that he’d placed C-4 explosives throughout the facilities, telling a phone operator at a historically Jewish hospital in Nassau, “I’m gonna blow you to bits, you f—ing k–e bitch,” according to court filings.
When an NYPD 911 dispatcher called him back, he responded, “I just called the hospital requesting my fucking million dollars or I’m going to blow this kike fucking bitch to the sky.”
He live-streamed that call in a channel on Discord, a social media and messaging platform, revealing his face on video.
Two days later, he called a new threat in to the hospice and senior care network’s main line, saying he had placed “15 backpacks full of C-4 with cell phones strapped to them in all of your maintenance closets” and threatening, “I’m gonna blow you k–es sky high.”
“The defendant endangered patients and diverted precious law enforcement resources to advance his hateful agenda against people of the Jewish faith. His actions fed a rising tide of antisemitism in America,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday.
Patkovic’s lawyer, James Darrow of the Federal Defenders, argued in a court filing last week that his client was homeless during COVID, suffered bipolar disorder, and was friendless and cut off from his abusive family when he “found welcome in a group of outsiders on Discord.”
“Treated as a fringe person, Mr. Patkovic embraced a fringe persona — punk rock, paganism, Eastern European ethnocentrism and, eventually, quasi-neo-Nazi beliefs,” Darrow wrote. “The Discord community encouraged this. Eventually, what started as memes led to prank calls, and prank calls led to swatting.”
Darrow asked for a shorter sentence of two years and nine months — almost a year of which Patkovic has already served since his arrest last August — followed by supervised release.
“The only compass that he had was the compass that he found when he went online,” Darrow told Judge Ramon Reyes Wednesday, arguing that probation officials would likely be the first responsible adults in Patkovic’s life. “What we’re doing is asking for him being given the chance to show who he actually is when he’s not embedded in this toxic corner of the internet.”
Prosecutors were asking for five years and three months behind bars, pointing out in a court filing last week how he “chose historically Jewish hospitals and elderly care centers, definitionally filled with individuals who were particularly vulnerable due to their age and physical condition.”
“The defendant live-streamed those calls to an audience,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Reich told the judge Wednesday. “The calls were not just offensive, they were frankly terrifying. … He made very specific and realistic threats.”
Police had to search the hospitals floor by floor, throwing their daily operations into chaos, he said.
Internet tools have made it easier for hoax callers and swatters to mask their identities, Reich said, making it important “to send the message if you do get caught, you will be punished.”
In a brief statement to the judge, Patkovic apologized to the Jewish community.
“I do not hate Jews,” he said. “We were doing prank calls. It turned into a mess. I have no hate toward anybody. I apologize … I am wrong. I am wrong in this situation, 100%.”
Reyes said he had to balance the seriousness of the crime with Patkovic’s mental illness and upbringing.
“The sentence that I give in this case needs to deter others from engaging in a similar crime,” he said.
https://archive.ph/KmxYZ
John Annese, New York Daily News
Wed, July 23, 2025 at 7:47 AM PDT
4 min read
An antisemitic live streamer who made bomb threats to Jewish hospitals as part of a sick game of bigoted one-upmanship with his online Discord pals was sentenced by a Brooklyn judge to five years behind bars Wednesday.
Domagoj Patkovic, 32, who was once photographed making a “Sieg Heil” Nazi salute over an unconscious man’s body, learned his fate in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday. He admitted earlier this year he conspired to call in a half-dozen bomb threats at Jewish hospitals in New York City and on Long Island.
As part of his plea deal, Patkovic, of Portland, Ore., admitted to all six threats, made between May and September of 2021.
He started with two calls on May 18, 2021, to a Jewish hospital in Queens and a Jewish hospice and senior care network with offices across the city, claiming he had set a series of bombs, according to the feds.
On May 24, 2021, he called the same Queens hospital, saying, “I’m gonna kill you k–es,” according to court filings.
He made more calls to Jewish hospitals in Queens and Nassau County on Sept. 15, claiming that he’d placed C-4 explosives throughout the facilities, telling a phone operator at a historically Jewish hospital in Nassau, “I’m gonna blow you to bits, you f—ing k–e bitch,” according to court filings.
When an NYPD 911 dispatcher called him back, he responded, “I just called the hospital requesting my fucking million dollars or I’m going to blow this kike fucking bitch to the sky.”
He live-streamed that call in a channel on Discord, a social media and messaging platform, revealing his face on video.
Two days later, he called a new threat in to the hospice and senior care network’s main line, saying he had placed “15 backpacks full of C-4 with cell phones strapped to them in all of your maintenance closets” and threatening, “I’m gonna blow you k–es sky high.”
“The defendant endangered patients and diverted precious law enforcement resources to advance his hateful agenda against people of the Jewish faith. His actions fed a rising tide of antisemitism in America,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday.
Patkovic’s lawyer, James Darrow of the Federal Defenders, argued in a court filing last week that his client was homeless during COVID, suffered bipolar disorder, and was friendless and cut off from his abusive family when he “found welcome in a group of outsiders on Discord.”
“Treated as a fringe person, Mr. Patkovic embraced a fringe persona — punk rock, paganism, Eastern European ethnocentrism and, eventually, quasi-neo-Nazi beliefs,” Darrow wrote. “The Discord community encouraged this. Eventually, what started as memes led to prank calls, and prank calls led to swatting.”
Darrow asked for a shorter sentence of two years and nine months — almost a year of which Patkovic has already served since his arrest last August — followed by supervised release.
“The only compass that he had was the compass that he found when he went online,” Darrow told Judge Ramon Reyes Wednesday, arguing that probation officials would likely be the first responsible adults in Patkovic’s life. “What we’re doing is asking for him being given the chance to show who he actually is when he’s not embedded in this toxic corner of the internet.”
Prosecutors were asking for five years and three months behind bars, pointing out in a court filing last week how he “chose historically Jewish hospitals and elderly care centers, definitionally filled with individuals who were particularly vulnerable due to their age and physical condition.”
“The defendant live-streamed those calls to an audience,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Reich told the judge Wednesday. “The calls were not just offensive, they were frankly terrifying. … He made very specific and realistic threats.”
Police had to search the hospitals floor by floor, throwing their daily operations into chaos, he said.
Internet tools have made it easier for hoax callers and swatters to mask their identities, Reich said, making it important “to send the message if you do get caught, you will be punished.”
In a brief statement to the judge, Patkovic apologized to the Jewish community.
“I do not hate Jews,” he said. “We were doing prank calls. It turned into a mess. I have no hate toward anybody. I apologize … I am wrong. I am wrong in this situation, 100%.”
Reyes said he had to balance the seriousness of the crime with Patkovic’s mental illness and upbringing.
“The sentence that I give in this case needs to deter others from engaging in a similar crime,” he said.
