FBI arrests man who planned attack on Chabad preschool in LA

FBI agents arrested Steven Carlos Dueñas, a 51-year-old Los Angeles resident, on suspicion of planning a mass-casualty attack on JEMS, a Chabad preschool in the city's Los Feliz neighborhood.

The arrest followed a lengthy federal investigation that began after Dueñas posted explicit threats against Jewish institutions and began preparing incendiary devices. Court filings now reveal the depth of the planning and the suspect's troubled background.

The case began in mid-September when investigators focused on a series of violent posts Dueñas published on X. In one, he posted a photograph of a Molotov cocktail he had made, shot against a television screen showing footage from the Twin Towers attack, with the caption "Don't just watch the war, take part in it." He gave the firebomb a racial slur as a name. Later that evening he posted again: "Bottle number two tonight."

The bottle found in his home (Photo: United States District Courts)

In other posts, Dueñas shared a video with an R.E.M. song playing in the background alongside the text "Love my Houthi brothers," then followed with direct threats: "Not enough synagogues have burned" and "I got some Tomahawk missiles on Facebook Marketplace, maybe I'll blow up the gan later." The posts triggered immediate attention from federal law enforcement, which began close surveillance of his activities, according to the New York Post.

At 4:30 a.m., federal agents raided the home Dueñas shares with his mother. The search uncovered materials for assembling improvised incendiary devices, including a glass bottle filled with gasoline and ready for use. The findings confirmed investigators' fears that the threats were not idle online talk but active preparation for an attack on the Chabad preschool.

At a dramatic detention hearing in federal court, Dueñas appeared in shackles, tears streaming down his face. The scene was so intense that the judge asked if he wanted to pause the proceedings until he composed himself, but the suspect asked to continue. Before being led back to his cell, he mouthed "I love you" to his mother, who was present in the courtroom. His next hearing is scheduled for November 10.

His mother, Maria Dueñas, tried to defend her son in interviews with the media, describing a severe mental breakdown. She said that in the past he had been a sweet child, attended good schools, and even served as a choirboy at church. But after being fired from his job as a social worker in Los Angeles County, followed by a divorce and a complicated long-distance marriage, he deteriorated into serious mental illness including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, along with severe addiction to alcohol and medication. After the arrest, she said, she found barrels of alcohol and hundreds of pill bottles in the house. She rejected claims of inherent antisemitism, though she mentioned a past dispute over a fence with Jewish neighbors, and expressed deep hope that her son would be sent to treatment and rehabilitation in an appropriate facility.