Utah man charged with attempted hate crime after allegedly threatening to 'blow up' synagogue

A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment charging a Utah man with attempting to commit a hate crime, among other charges, after he allegedly made online threats relating to a Utah synagogue. 

Skyler AJ Rose, 22, of Ogden, Utah, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 21, charging him with multiple federal crimes including possession of an unregistered destructive device, threat to kill and injure persons and to destroy a building with an explosive, in addition to the hate crime charge. 

A user on a social media platform, later identified as Rose, made multiple threatening posts on Dec. 23, 2025, according to court documents. One of the threats allegedly included, “I wanna blow up a synagogue.”

Investigators tracked the IP address back to the home where Rose resided. The FBI contacted Ogden City Police Department to assist with visiting the suspect’s home and confirmed the username belonged to Rose. Authorities executed a search warrant and recovered six improvised explosive pipe bombs and one inert device, explosive precursors and components that could be used to construct further improvised explosive pipe bombs, a black Samsung cellphone, and two rifles with accompanying magazines and ammunition.

A subsequent search warrant of Rose's cellphone revealed that in November 2025, Rose searched for a synagogue near him using the internet. The cellphone also allegedly contained evidence of child sexual abuse material, and hundreds of cached images and screenshots depicting child sexual abuse materials. 

“Today’s indictment stops in its tracks an alleged plan to carry out a violent attack on a synagogue,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.