Police Chief T.J. Murray said in a Facebook statement on Monday that racist, antisemitic literature was abandoned at places including a synagogue in New York’s Southern Tier and a largely black church in Hornell.
At Hornell, the first flyer was found stuck at the door of Rehoboth Deliverance Ministries as people began arriving for services on Sunday morning, church member Marcena Harmonson told Hornell’s Evening Tribune. The flyer promoted the “Aryan National Army” and included a skull located inside a swastika.
Harmonson said church members were concerned, especially given the recent buffalo shooting.
“And when your kids, young people, are older people, they don’t know what to think,” she said. “Many of them have never experienced anything like this.”
Murray said officers found similar material in front of the temple Beth-El synagogue and in other places, including driveways, doors and a park.
Then on Monday, police saw two men distributing literature, officials said. After officers searched their home, two men and a woman were arrested on 115 counts, each of grievous assault, a felony hate crime. It was not clear whether he had lawyers who could comment on the allegations.
Media reports identified them as Aubrey Gradonetti, 31, Dylan Henry, 30, and Ryan Mulhollen, 27,; they have been charged with aggravated harassment.