The 28-year-old charged with attempting to firebomb a U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv was born in Colorado, according to a complaint filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court.
Joseph Neumeyer, who has dual United States and German citizenship, was apprehended in Israel and flown to the United States on Sunday. He was charged with attempting to destroy, by means of fire or explosive, a U.S. embassy office in Tel Aviv, the complaint said. Neumeyer had been in Israel since April and on May 19 wrote on social media about plans to burn down the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.
“Join me this afternoon in Tel Aviv – we are burning down the US embassy,” Neumeyer wrote in a Facebook post included in the criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.
Later that day, Neumeyer allegedly spat on a security guard outside the embassy and cursed at him. The guard grabbed Neumeyer’s backpack in an attempt to capture him but Neumeyer slipped out of the backpack and fled, according to the criminal complaint.
The guard opened the backpack and found three Molotov cocktails filled with ethanol, the complaint said.
Neumeyer was tracked to a hotel about five blocks from the embassy by Israeli police and detained. He admitted to Israeli police that he spat on the guard and was carrying three Molotov cocktails made of vodka, the complaint said. Neumeyer was flown back to the United States on Sunday.
Neumeyer was active online, writing on multiple websites about his business, technological and academic accomplishments. However, none of those claims could be verified, including whether he graduated from college.
The Denver Post’s efforts to reach Neumeyer’s family in Colorado were unsuccessful, but in a brief phone call on Sunday with the Washington Post Zach Neumeyer said his son dealt with “deep mental health issues.”
It was unclear where Neumeyer most recently lived before catching an Air Canada flight in February to Toronto from the United States.
Neumeyer had posted multiple threats in March toward President Trump on his Facebook page, the criminal complaint said. He also had threatened Elon Musk.
“Death to Trump. Death to America,” a post from March 31 said. A picture of it was included in the federal complaint.
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