A 31-year-old Oregon resident has been sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of a series of threats that terrorized Jewish-affiliated health care institutions in New York. Domagoj Patkovic, a Portland resident, admitted thatת between May and September 2021, he made at least six threatening phone calls to hospitals and nursing homes in New York, using explicit antisemitic slurs and threatening to bomb the facilities. In some cases, he didn’t stop at the calls — he also live-streamed the threats on Discord, a messaging platform popular among gamers, where dozens watched and encouraged him.
According to the indictment filed in Brooklyn federal court, in one of his early calls, Patkovic calmly told a hospital receptionist in Brooklyn: “I’ve planted bombs in all the rooms. I’m going to kill all the kikes.” In another call, he claimed: “You have 15 bags full of C-4 with phones attached in all the maintenance rooms. If you don’t pay a million dollars, I’ll blow you sky-high.” In another instance, he said: “All those kikes are going to fly to heaven for Allah.”
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Domagoj Patkovic broadcast his antisemitic threats on Discord
(Photo: From the indictment)
One of the threats, in September 2021, led to a partial evacuation and shutdown of a hospital in Long Island. Dozens of police officers, bomb squads and emergency crews were dispatched, the facility was locked down, and patients were relocated to alternative sites. Though no explosives were found, the emergency response lasted hours. Police classified the incident as “swatting” — a form of hoax call aimed at triggering an armed law enforcement response and spreading fear. Patkovic reportedly streamed all of his calls live and boasted about his trolling in various online chats.
The FBI investigation uncovered an even darker aspect of the case: on Patkovic’s phone, investigators found a photo of him giving a Nazi salute over an unconscious man. During questioning, he was recorded telling agents: “That guy’s dead because he came at me with a whip. I took a picture saluting over him.” He later claimed the voice in the threatening phone calls had been faked using AI technology but eventually retracted the claim and confessed to the offenses.
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Domagoj Patkovic recorded himself giving a Nazi salute over an unconscious man
(Photo: From the indictment)
Patkovic was arrested in August 2024 after a two-year manhunt. He initially faced charges carrying a maximum sentence of 155 years, which was later reduced to 15 years. As part of a plea deal, he was ultimately sentenced to just five years in prison.
“The defendant endangered patients and diverted precious law enforcement resources to advance his hateful agenda against people of the Jewish faith. His actions fed a rising tide of antisemitism in America,” stated United States Attorney Joseph Nocella. FBI representatives added that the case was part of a “serious wave of antisemitism in the United States” and emphasized their determination to combat false threats intended to instill fear.
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In the Jewish community, the case is seen as part of a dangerous trend. Though the charges against Patkovic did not formally include hate crimes, “to us, this is clearly antisemitism, even if the law struggles to define it that way,” said Jessica Anderson, a security advisor with the Jewish Federation of Portland.
She noted that the sense of escalation began after Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021 and intensified following the October 7 massacre. “Institutions can’t afford to be complacent. They must prepare for every scenario, because these threats don’t end with one conviction," according to Anderson.