Man convicted of targeting Christians in Roseville bomb threat
An Arizona man who authorities say was radicalized online was convicted on Thursday of planting a fake bomb at a Roseville church, court documents show.
Zimnako Salah, 45, was found guilty in federal court in Sacramento of making a bomb threat and obstructing the free exercise of religion for tying a black backpack to the back of a toilet at the church in 2023, leading staff there to think it was a bomb. He was also convicted of targeting the church because of the congregants’ Christian faith, making the act a hate crime.
During the 11-day trial in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, , prosecutors said that Salah, who told the FBI that he was born in Iraq but had lived in the Phoenix area for about 20 years, also took backpacks to churches in the San Diego, Phoenix, and Denver areas, successfully planting one of the packages at the Arizona church.
In a motion filed with the court during the trial, prosecutors characterized the efforts as a “dry run” for a real bomb that Salah was attempting to assemble in a storage facility where FBI investigators said in an affidavit they found a pipe, nails and other materials that could be used to make an explosive device.
“Planting a hoax bomb at the Roseville church was not an isolated incident or a prank for this defendant,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith said Friday in a news release. “His actions were designed to threaten and intimidate the congregation because he disagreed with their religious beliefs.”
The case has also drawn the attention of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said in a news release Friday that Salah would face “severe punishment.”
“This Department of Justice has no tolerance for anyone who targets religious Americans for their faith,” Bondi said.
Roseville church bomb scare
At the Roseville church, employees and volunteers were terrified after security found the backpack shortly after Sunday services on Nov. 12, 2023, the FBI affidavit says.
They moved teens in a special needs classroom near the restroom farther away, and established a large perimeter around the area, the affidavit said. They called 911 twice, but when police didn’t arrive decided to open the backpack themselves, detaching it from the toilet and taking it to the church food preparation area, the affidavit said.
The volunteers and employees donned gloves, fetched an expert in first aid, and said a prayer, the affidavit said, opening the backpack to find that it had been stuffed with a pillow.
One volunteer told the FBI she thought she “might meet Jesus today,” the affidavit said.
At first, one employee said, they thought it had been left behind by one of the teens attending a large campout at the church the day before, the affidavit says. But when they reviewed security footage, they saw that it had been brought in by a stranger.
Prosecutors said that Salah drove to several locations in California and Arizona in a green Prius, frequently changing its license plates. A search of his online activity showed that he consumed “extremist propaganda” and had searched for videos of “infidels dying,” Beckwith’s office said in a news release. He had watched videos of ISIS militants killing people, the news release said.
Salah is scheduled to be sentenced on July 18 by U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins, court records show. He faces up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Beckwith said.
