A Florida man arrested for alleged weapons violations on Halloween had a list of targets that included a U.S. congressman and locations he associated with Jewish and Black people, prosecutors allege.
John Lapinski, 41, was jailed without bail on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing an unregistered gun suppressor.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday if Lapinski has retained legal counsel for the matter. The Federal Public Defender of South Florida did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A factual proffer in support of keeping Lapinski behind bars was filed Tuesday and contains new details about his arrest and about a subsequent search of his belongings, in which authorities say they found the list, firearms and ammunition.
Police in Margate, 40 miles north of Miami, were called to a report of shots fired about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 31 and zeroed in on a home where a resident said only herself and her brother, Lapinski, were present, according to the proffer, which was signed by Assistant United States Attorney Marc Anton.
After speaking to the sister, officers determined Lapinski was the shooter and arrested him before taking him to a medical facility for a mental evaluation, Anton wrote in the filing.
No injuries were reported, but a customary walk-through of the home turned up evidence of firearms, including spent shell casings and a homemade target, Anton stated.
Officers discovered that Lapinski was convicted twice in 2005 for resisting an officer with violence, a felony, and was under an ongoing restraining order for a 2017 domestic violence case, the federal prosecutor said. In both matters, the defendant was prohibited by a judge from possessing firearms and ammunition.
With a judge’s approval, officers searched the location of the arrest and found multiple firearms, including an AR-15 platform rifle described as a Palmetto State Armory Liberty-15, Anton wrote.
Gunmaker and retailer Palmetto State Armory makes an AR-15 compatible “Liberty-15” “stripped lower receiver,” a frame that contains a weapon’s trigger, which requires a serial number under federal law.
Also found, according to the proffer: a similar long gun described as a Black Aces Tactical FD 12 shotgun — a semiautomatic rifle with a pistol grip and cooling fins — two semiautomatic handguns, a shotgun, body armor, smoke grenades, suspected silencers, an array of ammunition — some of it spent — and a clipboard containing a list of “targets.”
One of the silencers was produced using an automotive oil filter and was not registered, as required, with federal authorities, Anton alleged in the filing.
The alleged list of targets includes U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Florida, as well as locations the writer of the list characterized as draws for Jewish and Black people — a synagogue, a Jewish cemetery, a Jewish sandwich shop, and parks and schools that were described using a derogatory term for Black people, according to Anton’s filing.
One entry on the list said, “Stalk Jewish parks,” the proffer stated.
Moskowitz, who was reelected in the Nov. 5 election, thanked law enforcement for their work on the case. “Regardless of our political affiliation or differences, we all have families we want to keep safe,” he said in a statement on Nov. 8.
Broward County, Florida, jail records state that Lapinski was arrested on Nov. 2 and booked on suspicion of violating federal and state laws prohibiting felons from having guns, as well as the state-level allegation that he violated a court order banning him from having firearms.
Lapinski was being held without bail under a U.S. Marshals Service hold, the records show. A detention hearing is scheduled for Nov. 27.
