Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)
TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County, New Jersey, man admitted to transmitting, via the internet, a post containing threats to injure members of the white community by shooting them with a firearm, Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna announced today.
Joshua Cobb, 24, of Trenton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On December 17, 2022, Cobb used a social media application to post a message, stating:
“I want to cause mayhem on the white community. The reason i specifically want to target white people is because as a black male, they will NEVER understand my struggles. Same way I will never understand their struggles, but I don’t care to. I want to erase them. All of them really, but in this case as many as I possibly can.
As of today I have officially began planning my attack. It is going to take place in 2023 in the state of New Jersey, I have not chosen a exact date but I am going to be sure it is close to an important holiday to their race. I have a location in mind already which I have frequented for the past year and I am certain nobody there is armed to be able to stop me from spraying them to the ground. I have already acquired 2 of the 4 firearms I plan to use for my attack, and I also know my entry and exit points already after the mayhem…
White people are going to feel my pain in 2023. I will be certain I send as many as I possible can to the deepest pits of hell. I am going to wipe those ugly smiles completely off their faces. I dream of a day of pure evil on them. I plan to allow every evil spirit to work entirely through me and kill as many as i can. Some will get extra rounds through their head.
And you guys can think I’m a troll all you want. Just pay close attention the news, you will see my aftermath. And I will be sure I kill myself after I finish my terrorism.
White men and women in New Jersey, get ready. You are going to feel my pain very fucking soon. I put that on my life. From here on out I don’t want to talk, my rounds are going to, after they exit the back of all your heads. Get ready New Jersey. The devil is coming.”
As part of his guilty plea, Cobb admitted to writing the above-described posts, and that he understood that the messages would be threatening towards certain individuals. He had previously provided detailed information to law enforcement on locations he had considered as possible targets for his attack, including a gym and a grocery store in Robbinsville, New Jersey. Cobb also discussed his access to guns and idolization of other mass shooters.
Transmitting a threat in interstate commerce carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for May 20, 2025.
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Acting U.S. Attorney Khanna credited special agents of the FBI and task force officers of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian J. Driscoll, with the investigation. He also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, under the direction of U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada, agents of the FBI Field Office in Los Angeles, California, under the direction of Acting Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis; the Hamilton Police Department, under the direction of Chief Kenneth R. DeBoskey; the Robbinsville Police Department, under the direction of Chief Michael K. Polaski; and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Theresa L. Hilton.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vera Varshavsky of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s National Security Unit, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division.