William Celli

Press TV
December 22, 2015

Investigators in the US state of California are seeking hate crime charges against a Donald Trump supporter for planning to attack American Muslims.

Police in the city of Richmond raided William Celli’s home on Sunday afternoon and arrested him after receiving calls that he was making explosives and plotting to attack Muslims.

Officers also removed a suspicious device and detonated it. According to police, the 55-year-old white plumber has delivered a threatening letter to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, DC.

He was charged with possession of an explosive device and making criminal threats to attack Muslim targets in the country.

However, advocates in the Muslim community are hoping that terrorism charges will be filed. Anti-Muslim feelings have soared in the US following the deadly attacks in Paris and Islamophobic remarks by Republican presidential candidates Dr. Ben Carson and Donald Trump.

On his Facebook, Celli wrote frequent statuses in support of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who proposed to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.

“Donald trumps on again I’m happy leaders okay but this guys a great point man (sic),” Celli wrote in a grammatically incorrect rambling on October 21. “I’ll follow this MAN to the end of the world.”

Trump has created a furor in the US and around the world by proposing a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States, following last month’s mass shooting in California.

The New York real-estate mogul has also called for a database to track Muslims across the United States, and he has also said that the US would have “absolutely no choice” but to close down mosques.

Trump’s fiery remarks on immigration, Muslims and other issues have dominated the 2016 election campaign, and during the fifth GOP debate on Tuesday night the billionaire businessman repeated his controversial remarks, drawing rebukes from several of his rivals.