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In a disturbing case that has captured national attention, federal prosecutors have charged Jeremy Wayne Shoemaker, a resident of Needham, Alabama, with making threats via phone and text to various religious leaders across the South. The threats included alarming messages, such as telling a rabbi, “I want you to die.”
Shoemaker now faces charges of making an Interstate Communications Threat. His legal troubles began with related state charges, including resisting arrest and possessing a firearm unlawfully.
According to court documents filed by an FBI agent, Shoemaker targeted rabbis in Alabama and Louisiana, an imam in Georgia, a church in North Carolina, and others through a series of intimidating calls and texts. Authorities discovered multiple firearms at his residence, alongside a suitcase packed with ammunition. Notably, they also found papers containing the names, addresses, and phone numbers of various religious and prominent figures.
In his interactions with authorities, Shoemaker claimed that his actions were not intended to incite actual violence but were rather attempts at intimidation or what he described as “psychological warfare.” The court documents also reveal that Shoemaker has been diagnosed with a mental illness, although the specific diagnosis has been redacted from public records. His grandmother informed the FBI that he had been refusing to take his prescribed medication.
The case escalated to federal attention when Shoemaker left threatening voicemail messages, including one earlier this month directed at a rabbi in Mountain Brook, Alabama. This incident has underscored the severity of the threats he posed to religious communities in the region.
“I want you to die because you want the death of us,” Shoemaker said in one of the calls. “You want the West to die off.”
The agent wrote that Shoemaker sent text messages to an Islamic center in Louisiana in 2024, including one stating that the “jews and you musIimeens have declared war on us again, and we are going to defend ourselves.” Another to a Georgia imam this year said he knew where the imam lived and warned for him to watch his back.
Shoemaker told the FBI agent that he did not intend any violence and the calls and texts were an attempt at intimidation.
“Shoemaker claimed his statements were satire, not a legitimate threat, rebuttal, and mocking them,” the agent wrote.
A search of Shoemaker’s home found multiple firearms, a body armor carrier, and numerous boxes of ammunition.
Needham is a small town in southwest Alabama located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Mississippi-Alabama border. Shoemaker is being held in the Choctaw County Jail.
Sara Jones, FBI special agent in charge, said multiple law enforcement agencies acted “within hours of learning of a threat to a member of the Jewish community.”
“This is a prime example of law enforcement working together to crush violent crime and protect the American people,” Jones said in a statement Friday.
Ernest C. McCorquodale, III, a defense lawyer representing Shoemaker in the state charges, declined to comment when reached earlier this week.
The Clarke County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that a man was taken into custody by a multi-agency force after the FBI and other law enforcement offices were “notified of credible threats of violence made against multiple synagogues throughout Alabama and surrounding states.” A photo posted by the sheriff’s department shows a semi-automatic rifle, shotgun, handgun and piles of ammunition taken from the home.