Authorities nabbed a Washington man Thursday who called in vile, racist, and violent threats to five businesses across five states—including the grocery chain that suffered through a targeted shooting in Buffalo, New York.
Joey George, 37, allegedly called a Tops grocery store on July 19, claiming that he could make the news for shooting Black people with his assault rifles. He hinted that he could be in the store already and threatened to travel to the Jefferson Tops location where the racially motivated shooting happened in May, according to a federal complaint.
He called the store again a day after, investigators said, going on a tirade about a “race war.”
“This is what happens in a blue state,” he allegedly told the employee.
George attempted to use the handy *67 trick to conceal his phone number, but investigators say they were able to parse through it. He also attempted to mask his identity by using different names for each business he called.
His terrorization wasn’t just limited to Buffalo—he also called Shari’s Restaurant and Pies in San Bruno, California, in May, authorities say. In the call, he threatened to shoot Black people, who he said were “sub-human.”
When police called his number later, he used a relative’s birthday when asked for his own, investigators said. He did the same when officers called him after another threat to Verilife Cannabis Dispensary in Maryland in September, where he said he wanted to “shoot any n-----s” once he arrived.
Though an employee tried to de-escalate the threats, investigators say George was able to describe another employee’s appearance in detail.
In the phone call with police after the Maryland incident, he said Black people “have it coming” and that he called in the threat “out of fear.”
Investigators also tied George to other vicious threats made at Denny’s in Connecticut and another dispensary in Washington.
George will make his initial court appearance on Friday at 2 p.m. PDT.