A U.S. Army soldier has been arrested and charged after allegedly threatening to walk into a synagogue with an assault rifle and "kill every single Jew," federal prosecutors announced on April 27.
Jakob Marcoulier, 22, a soldier stationed at Fort Polk Army base in west-central Louisiana, was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana. Online inmate records show that Marcoulier was arrested on April 23 and booked into the Rapides Parish Detention Center in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Prosecutors accused Marcoulier of telling people through voice messages on Discord, an online messaging platform, about his plans to "kill Jewish people in a synagogue." The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received an online tip in February about a Discord user who had made threats, and the agency obtained audio recordings from the platform, according to court documents.
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The Discord user, who was later identified as Marcoulier, could be heard saying in the audio recordings that after his deployment, "if the Jews still have reign over our government, I am going to walk into a synagogue with my AK" and "kill every single Jew I know inside of that synagogue," prosecutors said.
Marcoulier allegedly told people on Discord that his plan to attack a synagogue was his "goal in life," according to court documents. Prosecutors said Marcoulier also emphasized the seriousness of his threats by telling people on the Discord chat that he needed to kill Jewish people "in order to make sure the white youth is... secured.”
"You guys will never do anything about but I will. I just have to finish this, I have to go back overseas and do what I have to do. And then you'll see me in the news. I promise you," Marcoulier allegedly said in the audio recordings, according to prosecutors.
If convicted, Marcoulier faces up to five years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
"Threats against synagogues and Jewish Americans are threats to the religious freedom promised to every single one of us, and this Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to protecting those freedoms," U.S. Attorney Zachary Keller said in a statement on April 27.
"This case demonstrates the FBI’s vigilance and swift action in identifying and taking action against those who perpetrate these threats, and our Office looks forward to seeing justice done in this case," Keller added.
High-profile incidents involving activity on Discord
Discord is an online messaging platform where users can communicate directly with each other, either by text or in voice calls. The platform became immensely popular with gamers and was originally developed to help people who play multiplayer games to communicate.
The platform has more than 90 million daily active users, according to the company's website. While Discord was designed as a communications platform and has been primarily aimed at gamers, researchers with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue have documented that the platform has been "repeatedly used by various extremist groups."
In a 2021 report, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue — an independent research organization that analyzes extremism, disinformation, and online threats — found that Discord "primarily acts as a hub for extreme right-wing socializing and community building" and "provides a safe space for users to share ideological material and explore extremist movements."
In recent years, Discord has also been under intense scrutiny for allegedly facilitating child sexual exploitation and abuse, and for being linked to high-profile mass shootings. Multiple high-profile incidents of violence and extremism that have involved Discord include:
- Unite the Right at Charlottesville, Virginia: Far-right extremists used the platform to communicate and organize before the rally, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Authorities said hundreds of Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis, and other white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus in 2017, shouting racist and antisemitic chants.
- Buffalo, New York, shooting: Authorities said the gunman who shot and killed 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket in 2022 had invited Discord users into his private server to read the private writings he had posted on the platform for months. The writings included racist rants and step-by-step attack plans, USA TODAY previously reported.
- Ohio synagogue threat: In 2023, authorities accused a 13-year-old boy of planning to carry out a mass shooting at a Canton, Ohio, synagogue and had conspired with another person through Discord.
- Charlie Kirk shooting: Following the fatal shooting of the conservative activist in 2025, authorities alleged the suspect sent messages on Discord that contained references to a rifle that needed to be retrieved and engravings on bullet casings found with the accused shooter’s gun. Discord later disputed the accusations, saying it "found no evidence that the suspect planned this incident or promoted violence" on the platform.
Discord previously told USA TODAY that it has a "zero-tolerance policy against hate or violent extremism and we take action when we become aware of it, including banning users, shutting down servers, and engaging with authorities when appropriate." In 2021, the company said it had banned more than 2,000 extremist servers, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Surge in antisemitic incidents in the United States
The charges against Marcoulier also come amid a spike in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents in recent years. Antisemitic hate crimes and incidents have been increasing across the country, and spiked considerably following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel by Hamas forces.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which tracks antisemitic incidents in the United States, recorded more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the year after Oct. 7, 2023.
In its 2025 report, researchers at the ADL documented 9,354 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment, and vandalism across the country in 2024 — a 5% increase from 2023, which was also a record-breaking year. The number of incidents was the highest since the ADL started tracking antisemitism data in 1979.
The ADL also counted almost 1,000 incidents of white supremacist propaganda, most of it related to three extremist groups, according to the report.
Contributing: Will Carless and N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US soldier threatened to 'kill every single Jew' in synagogue, DOJ says
