Benny\u00a0Caldera Jr., 40, was arrested Wednesday and charged with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony. He also faces a federal charge of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n
The Texas Department of Public Safety said it received “credible information” Tuesday that\u00a0Caldera was planning a “violent attack” at the Capitol on Thursday. Authorities “worked through the night” and arrested him at his home around 3 a.m. Wednesday, DPS said.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said\u00a0DPS agents who searched\u00a0Caldera’s home found a .357 revolver loaded with six rounds. The serial number appeared to have been filed off. In his bedroom closet, agents found a 12-gauge shotgun and six 9mm rounds.<\/p>\n
Authorities have said\u00a0Caldera is from Converse, but court records list an address on San Antonio’s far North Side near U.S. 281 and Loop 1604.<\/p>\n
A friend who had known Caldera for six years raised the alarm after a concerning conversation with Caldera on Tuesday, an arrest affidavit states. The friend recounted the conversation to an FBI agent later that day.<\/p>\n
“I love you, if you don’t see me again,”\u00a0Caldera told his friend, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n
When his friend asked what he meant,\u00a0Caldera responded, “I am going to the Capitol and I am going to shoot it up. These people have to be exterminated.”<\/p>\n
The affidavit says the friend told the FBI agent\u00a0that Caldera was angry with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, a lobbying group that advocates for stronger U.S.-Israel ties.<\/p>\n
Caldera also said in a recorded conversation that he had “made up his mind and said goodbye to his parents,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n
Caldera was released from the Bexar County Jail on Wednesday after posting a $75,000 bond.<\/p>\n
If convicted of making a terroristic threat,\u00a0Caldera faces a prison sentence of two to 10 years. The federal weapons charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.<\/p>\n
“This defendant is in federal custody today thanks to a perceptive and concerned citizen seeing something and saying something,” said U.S. Attorney Simmons. “Had the alleged threats not been taken seriously and reported to law enforcement, we could have a very different and tragic story to tell today.”<\/p>\n
Staff writer Faith Bugenhagen contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benny\u00a0Caldera Jr., 40, was arrested Wednesday and charged with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony. He also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-454147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454147","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=454147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}