{"id":453631,"date":"2026-10-01T22:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453631\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T22:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:06:06","slug":"man-who-allegedly-threatened-to-shoot-up-texas-capitol-now-faces-federal-gun-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453631\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who allegedly threatened to &#8220;shoot up&#8221; Texas Capitol now faces federal gun charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas announced Thursday that a Bexar County man accused of <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/man-arrested-in-alleged-plot-to-attack-texas-capitol-dps-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">making threats<\/a> to the Texas State Capitol is now facing federal gun charges.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Department of Public Safety announced Wednesday that Benny Caldera, Jr., 40, had been taken into federal custody after being released from Bexar County Jail.<\/p>\n<p>An arrest affidavit for Caldera reveals he allegedly told a friend, \u201cI am going to the Capitol and am going to shoot it up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The affidavit alleged Caldera was motivated by anger at the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese people have to be exterminated,\u201d investigators said Caldera told the friend.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/man-arrested-in-alleged-plot-to-attack-texas-capitol-dps-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RELATED| Suspect in alleged Texas Capitol attack plot taken into federal custody<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The affidavit notes the friend informed law enforcement of the threats.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons announced Thursday that Caldera is being charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHad the alleged threats not been taken seriously and reported to law enforcement, we could have a very different and tragic story to tell today,&#8221; Simmons said. &#8220;I appreciate the diligent efforts of our partners at Texas DPS and at the FBI, and I again urge everyone to take threats like this seriously and report them appropriately. You never know the impact you may have and the number of lives you could save.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday morning, Gov. Greg Abbott also addressed the threat to the Capitol, applauding the work done by law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to recognize that we live in a time when there are people who make these types of threats,&#8221; he said. &#8220;What we&#8217;re grateful for is the fact that the Texas Department of Public Safety was made aware of this potential threat.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office, Caldera is set to appear in federal court Thursday and, if convicted, could face up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Texas DPS and the FBI are investigating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas announced Thursday that a Bexar County&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-453631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}