Florida man arrested for alleged church shooting plan

The Palm Beach, Fla., sheriff’s office recently arrested Michael Iaboni for allegedly threatening online to commit a mass shooting and terroristic acts, according to jail booking records. Iaboni said in a since-deleted video that he would carry out violence at local megachurches, according to an arrest report obtained by The Palm Beach Post. He is considered legally innocent until proven guilty in court.

In 2024, Iaboni said in a social media video that he lived near a large local church and said that if the church didn’t act the way he wanted, “I’m coming for you.” He had begun frequenting the church soon before his arrest, according to The Palm Beach Post, and the sheriff had reason to believe that he had weapons.

Iaboni also threatened violence against politicians last week for their support of Israel, including U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, who is from Florida but whose district doesn’t include Palm Beach County. Iaboni dreamed of putting several politicians “20ft under any prison,” he wrote on Facebook. If anything happened to him while he was expressing his free speech rights, he would begin “Operation Murder The Corruption,” he wrote. He said he would fight against Jewish supremacy and stated in a video that he took inspiration from Adolf Hitler.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s story on the sentencing of an Arizona man convicted of bomb threat hoaxes at churches.