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As negotiations began, Geri reportedly produced a chaotic stream of handwritten notes spelling out his grievances. The filing says the papers contained attacks on the Catholic Church, the Supreme Court justices, Jewish people, and ICE — a manifesto of rage that police say helped explain his intended targets.
The arrest came as Catholics and other attendees were beginning to gather for the Red Mass, which traditionally marks the start of the high court’s term and calls on jurists to respect faith, liberty, and life in their rulings. It was during that early inspection of Geri’s tent that police say they uncovered the cache of about 200 homemade devices.
Metropolitan Police brought in a bomb disposal team and opened negotiations with Geri, but he refused to leave the tent. At one point he taunted officers with the threat: “Do you want me to throw one out, I’ll test one out on the streets?” He also claimed to have “a hundred-plus” devices on hand.
When officers warned they were preparing to remove him by force, Geri escalated his threats, saying, “Several of your people are gonna die from one of these.” Those comments prompted officers to widen their perimeter and treat the situation as an immediate public-safety crisis.
A negotiator attempted to calm the suspect and agreed to read from Geri’s document, titled “Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives,” according to the court filing. A female officer then peered inside the tent and observed Geri holding a butane lighter over one device, at which point he said, “All right, if you want to do it, we’ll do it now.”
Geri’s warning — “Step away or there’s going to be deaths,” — forced officers to back off and maintain a secure perimeter while specialists planned a safe resolution. After a tense standoff, the suspect briefly exited the tent to urinate on a nearby tree and was taken into custody after a short struggle, the police report states.
Authorities transported the suspected devices to FBI labs for analysis to determine the composition and lethality of the explosives, and the investigation remains active. Local and federal officials continue to review any possible links or additional threats tied to the suspect’s writings and materials.
This incident has underscored the continuing risk posed by lone actors who radicalize around anti-government, anti-religious, or other extremist ideologies and then attempt mass violence. Officials say swift detection and coordinated law enforcement action likely prevented a catastrophic attack at a high-profile public event.
