Man Threatens To Shoot Jewish Children's Camp For Not Social Distancing

A New York man is under arrest after allegedly threatening to shoot up a Jewish Children's camp on Long Island. Nicola Pelle, 58, called the county health department to report that students at Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island's children's camp were not social distancing. He told authorities that "approximately 500 students were wearing no masks."

Officials took the report and sent deputies to investigate his claims. While the officers were en route, Pelle called back and became irate because he felt they weren't responding quickly enough. He threatened to get a "get a gun and shoot" if the officers did not arrive soon.

"If I gotta go out there with a friggin' machine gun and shoot all these people, I will," Pelle allegedly said on the call.

After making the threat, officers went to Pelle's home, which is next door to the yeshiva. He admitted to making the call and was taken into custody and charged with felony counts of making a terroristic threat and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm. Authorities seized 14 weapons from his home, including five handguns, rifles, shotguns, and two assault weapons. Pelle legally owned all but one of the guns, a Bushmaster .223 rifle with a pistol grip and a detachable clip, which is illegal in New York. 

"Our officers did an outstanding job by questioning the subject, getting him to admit that he did make that complaint and did make the threat to shoot the school up, and then going in and recovering the weapons," Nassau County Police Department Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.

Pelle's neighbors were shocked by his comments but told WABC they didn't believe he would actually follow through on his threat.

"He made the remark, came out of his mouth, it is what it is," neighbor Anthony Rivelli said. "He just wasn't making sense, so I knew something was wrong. So I think we got a little overreaction."

Photo: Nassau County Police Department