Investigators arrest four, seek two in anti-Semitic firebombing

Tom Gardner

Monday, Dec. 6, 1999 | 3:31 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - An investigation focusing on white supremecists resulted in the arrests of four people in the firebombing of a Jewish synagogue and the issuance of arrest warrants for two more.

The Police Department's gang unit received information through the Secret Witness program and worked over the weekend with federal agents, the sheriff's department and the Reno fire department to track down the four people arrested.

"These are people who mainly are against anybody that isn't white," Lt. Jake Wiskerschen of the gang unit said on Monday.

He added that hate literature was found during two searches conducted in connection with the arrests.

"It was very hateful and against anybody that isn't of their race," Wiskerschen said. "In this particular case, they targeted the Jewish synagogue."

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a window of Temple Emanu El Tuesday evening. The glass shattered, but the makeshift bomb failed to break through the window. Instead, it bounced harmlessly onto the asphalt and singed bricks under the window.

Those arrested are Christopher Hampton, 22, of Reno, Scott Hudson, 23, of Sacramento, Calif., Joshua Kudlacek, 18, of Reno and a 17-year-old Reno woman.

Police were seeking Daniel McIntosh, 39, and Carl DeAmicus, 25.

It was the third incident at the temple this year. Earlier, rocks were thrown through two stained-glass windows and a replacement window was egged.

Wiskerschen said the current suspects probably were not involved in those incidents, because they apparently weren't in the area at the time.

FBI Special Agent Joseph Dickey said from Las Vegas that any possible connection to last summer's torching of three synagogues in Sacramento would be investigated aggressively.

"We are looking into that possibility and any other links," he said. "This is an ongoing investigation and we haven't ruled anything out at this point," he said.

Ron Jones, lead investigator for the Reno Fire Department, said earlier that initial indications were that the Sacramento firebombings, which destroyed one synagogue, were "a little more certified attempts - that somebody was a little more serious about going into the building and doing the deal."

Two men in custody in connection with the slaying of two gay men in Happy Valley in Shasta County have been linked to the Sacramento firebombings, but no charges have been filed against them in those attacks.

Four years ago, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the temple in Reno. No one was arrested in that case.

"The shadow of this will not dim the lights of our spirit," Rabbi Avraham Keller said of the most recent firebombing. "We will continue ever stronger to spread the light of love."