Gun Owner Arrested For Threats Against Jewish Summer Camp Over Social Distancing

An Inwood gun owner was arrested and accused of making a terroristic threat after a call to the police.

Threats Aimed at a Camp Lead to Arrest

58-year-old Nicola Pelle, of Inwood, called the police to inform them about Yeshiva children’s camp, where over 500 students were allegedly not wearing masks. While police were on their way to confirm the situation, Pelle apparently called again, this time threatening to shoot the people at the location if police didn’t come.

“If I’ve got to go out there with a friggin’ machine gun and shoot all these people, I will,” Pelle was heard saying, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder revealed.

The defendant identified himself as the caller and was later arrested. Pelle was also found to possess a Nassau County pistol permit, alongside multiple guns – five handguns, rifles, shotguns and two assault weapons, with one being illegal under state law.

All of Pelle’s weapons were seized as evidence, and he was arraigned on four counts of criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of criminal possession of a firearm, as well as for making a terroristic threat. His bail was set at $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash.

After posting bail, Pelle returned home, and within an hour was taken away in an ambulance, with neighbors and friends saying that he had not been “himself” due to him taking oxycodone after a lung surgery in relation to lung cancer.