Massachusetts man with Nazi flag arrested after 'frightening and disturbing threats targeting the Jewish community'

Rick Sobey, Boston Herald on Jan 7, 2025

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BOSTON — A 34-year-old man who reportedly had a cache of guns and a Nazi flag in his home has been arrested after allegedly posting threats to rape Jewish women and inciting others to shoot people outside synagogues.

Beverly man Matthew Scouras, who was busted following a tip from the feds, is accused of making “frightening and disturbing threats targeting the Jewish community.”

The FBI National Threat Operations Center last week alerted Beverly Police about a resident posting several threats against people of Jewish faith on a website.

The feds told Beverly PD that a person — at 527 Essex St. — posted threats to rape Jewish women and urged other users of the site to shoot people outside of synagogues.

After an initial visit to the home, police obtained a search warrant from Salem District Court. Scouras was taken into custody and held for a mental health evaluation.

Police during their search of Scouras’ bedroom found a Nazi flag, a 9mm Glock “ghost gun” with no serial number, six boxes of ammunition, three large-capacity rifle magazines, 11 lower receivers for various rifles, other firearm parts, scopes, pistol frames, a jig used for drilling holes into polymer pistol handles, rifle stocks, and more than $70,000 in cash.

Scouras has been charged with: threats to destroy a place of worship; possession of a firearm without a license (12 counts); illegal possession of ammunition; possession of a large capacity feeding device; improper storage of a firearm; willful communication of a threat with a dangerous item (a firearm); and making of a firearm without a serial number.

He’s being held without bail pending a detention hearing next week.

The Anti-Defamation League said this incident is a “grim reminder of hatred and threats targeting the Jewish community.”

“We are grateful to the Beverly Police Department for their swift investigation and subsequent arrest of a Beverly man on numerous firearms charges and inciting others online to commit acts of violence against Jewish women and shoot people outside of synagogues,” Peggy Shukur, VP of the Anti-Defamation League’s East Division, said in a statement.

“The frightening and disturbing threats targeting the Jewish community allegedly made by this individual coupled with a cache of firearms and Nazi flag found at his home suggest that a far more devastating outcome may have been averted,” Shukur added.

This incident comes less than a week after the Executive Office of Public Safety released data that showed Massachusetts seeing more reported antisemitic hate crimes in 2023 than at any time since government officials began tracking such data eight years ago.

Shukur said, “The impact of these incidents on a community’s sense of security and well-being cannot be understated and it will take time to restore.”

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