An Orthodox Jewish man is accused of planting a pipe bomb in a synagogue hours before a speech by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and blaming the act on an Islamic group.
Harry Shapiro, a 31-year-old former kosher butcher and theological student, was charged Tuesday with placing a destructive device and making a bomb threat. Police were searching his home again Wednesday.Shapiro called 911 with a bomb threat on Feb. 13, the day Peres spoke at the Jacksonville Jewish Center before 1,500 people, police said. The caller, who warned of the bomb hours before the speech, identified himself as "the American fringe of Islamic Jihad."
Police searched the building before the speech, but the bomb was not found and the speech went on without incident.
On Saturday, nine days after the speech, three children attending a luncheon after a bat mitzvah found the bomb in a hallway behind the temple's sanctuary and tried to tear the tape off the packages's casing.
An adult grabbed the device and rushed it outside. Police arrived, evacuated about 750 people and detonated the bomb.
Shapiro had told another person about his plan to bomb the center during Peres' speech, but the person didn't believe he would do it, police said.
Police had gotten tips that Shapiro was the 911 caller and he surrendered Monday night.