SEATTLE — A Lynnwood man was sentenced Friday at U.S. District Court in Seattle to two years in prison for making interstate threats and for a hate crime, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Joey David George, 37, has been in federal custody since he was arrested on July 22. According to U.S. Attorney Nick Brown, George admitted in his plea agreement that he madethreatening phone calls at or near his Lynnwood home to multiple businesses in four states. The businesses include grocery stores in Buffalo, New York, restaurants in California and Connecticut, and a marijuana dispensary in Maryland.
The plea agreement states that George called multiple grocery stores in Buffalo between July 19-21 and threatened to shoot Black people in the stores. George told staff members he was “nearby” and to “take him seriously.” He told staff to clear out the customers in the store and said he was “preparing to shoot all Black customers.” One of the stores closed.
“While Mr. George suffers from some mental health impairments, his conduct in this case was deliberate and motivated by racial hatred,” Brown said in a statement. “He wanted people to feel the terror that they would be targeted because of the color of their skin. Mr. George used the tragedy of the Buffalo grocery store shooting to make his threats even more searing. We take these matters very seriously.”
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez said at the sentencing hearing that “in today’s day and age, words are the weapons in the arsenal of the bully, the bigot, the racist and the homophobe These words seep into the psyche of the victims and cause incredible pain that might never go away.”
The Buffalo threats were made a few months after a racially-motivated shooting at another Buffalo grocery store in May 2022, when 10 people were killed.
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Police traced the phone number and identified George as the caller.
George also admitted to calling a restaurant in San Bruno, California, in May 2022 and threatened to shoot Black and Hispanic patrons. George said he made the threat to “strike fear in the Bay Area Black community,” according to a DOJ press release.
George also called a Rockville, Maryland, cannabis dispensary in September 2021 and used racial slurs and threatened to shoot and kill Black people at the business. Police used caller ID to trace the call to George, and he admitted “his racial hate to local law enforcement,” according to the DOJ. The dispensary shut down and hired extra security, which caused a loss of over $50,000.
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On the same day he called the dispensary, George also called Denny’s restaurant in Enfield, Connecticut, and threatened Black patrons.
George must pay $13,088 in restitution to the impacted businesses, the DOJ said. He will be on three years of supervised release when he completes his prison sentence.
Making interstate threats is punishable by up to five years in prison and interfering with a Federally Protected Activity is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the DOJ said prior to George’s sentence.
