Three men, teenager charged over plot to bomb Muslim enclave

Three men and a teenager have been arrested after planning to bomb a Muslim community in upstate New York.

Investigators have recovered three homemade bombs and nearly two dozen guns, authorities said on Tuesday.

The alleged plot was uncovered after a student at Odyssey Academy, a school in Greece, New York, showed a classmate a photograph of another student and said, “He looks like the next school shooter, doesn’t he?” Greece Police Chief Patrick Phelan told reporters at a news conference.

The remark was reported to school security, which along with local police interviewed both the student who had the photograph as well as the student in the picture.

The investigation eventually led police to execute several search warrants and arrest four people, including the student who showed off the photograph.

The timing of the attack was unknown. At the time of their weekend arrests, the men, three of whom were in Boy Scouts together, had access to 23 rifles and shotguns and three home-made explosives, Phelan said.

“I don’t know that there was a specific date. They had a plan in place”.

Brian Colaneri, 20, of Rochester; Andrew Crysel, 18, of East Rochester; and Vincent Vetromile, 19, face weapons and conspiracy charges. The student, who is 16, was charged with the same offences but was not identified due to his age.

The three improvised explosive devices were found at the teenager’s house, Phelan said. The weapons were all legally owned shotguns and rifles.

“If they had carried out this plot, which every indication is that they were going to, people would have died,” Phelan said. “I don’t know how many and who, but people would have died.”

Islamberg has been targeted in the past. Two years ago, a Tennessee man was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for plotting to attack the enclave.