White Supremacist arrested after allegedly threatening jury in trial of Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooter

A white supremacist was arrested and charged with threatening the jury, judge and witnesses at the trial of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter, Robert Bowers.

Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, from West Virginia, was charged with witness tampering, obstruction of justice and transmitting threats. He is accused of making comments calling for Mr Bowers’ release and threatening anyone involved in convicting him at his trial.

Mr Lloyd also allegedly wrote on 14th May on the Russian social media site VKontakte: “Free Robert Bowers Now!!…We need to support anyone who kills jews [sic].” 

On 17th May, three days later, he is claimed to have posted: “Robert Bowers did Pgh [Pittsburgh] a Favour. Any juror who finds him guilty is guilty of anti-White racism.” In an e-mail to local news stations, Mr Lloyd allegedly threatened to release personal information about jurors, announcing that he was “taking pictures of ALL cars and people who leave the courthouse”.

Mr Lloyd is also alleged to have placed or had others place for him stickers in predominantly Jewish areas that directed readers to a website claimed to be his and which is full of antisemitic abuse. The criminal complaint lodged against him argues that some stickers were themselves antisemitic, featuring symbols such as swastikas.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism throughout the United States.

Image credit: Texas Department of Public Safety