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Jan. 24, 2021 By Christina Santucci
A Bayside man who took to social media as a means to get weapons for a “racial holy war” pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to possessing a firearm with scraped-off serial numbers, authorities said.
Joseph Miner, 30, who now faces up to five years in prison, was nabbed by investigators after he was seen writing posts seeking weapons for a “racial civil war,” officials said.
Miner was arrested along with a neighbor, 40-year-old Daniel Jou, on May 12, 2020 during an FBI sting at a Queens hotel near LaGuardia Airport after he set up a meeting with an undercover officer posing as a gun dealer.
The pair wanted to buy ammunition and guns that didn’t have traceable serial numbers, according to a criminal complaint. At the meeting, Miner ponied up $100 for ammunition and $2,000 for three weapons – two with their serial numbers removed and another without identifying markings, the complaint stated.
Miner had a history of posting racist and anti-Semitic messages, authorities said, and allegedly celebrated a number of hate crimes that had made headlines.
He described a 2019 machete attack at a synagogue in Monsey NY during Hanukkah as exciting and expressed praise for the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. on social media, according to authorities.
Other posts included a photograph of Miner giving a Nazi salute and another of a Planned Parenthood facility being blown up by the comic book character the Joker, prosecutors said.
“Tbh [to be honest] dying fighting Paki and African pieces of shit in Europe wouldn’t be the worst way to go. Die a hero,” he wrote in February, according to prosecutors.
Federal officials also said Miner also posted several social media messages where he fantasized about becoming a martyr and described how he would “go out in a blaze of glory” in a mass-shooting attack.
Investigators said in May that they were uncertain if Miner had plans to carry out an attack, but emphasized in court documents that he had bought body armor and a tactical helmet.
“With today’s guilty plea, Miner has been held accountable and faces a prison sentence,” said Acting United States Attorney DuCharme said in a statement.
