A Bronx man who stockpiled bomb-making materials in his bedroom was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Wednesday.
Tyler Toro, 28, lived with his twin brother Christian Toro in their mother’s apartment in the Bronx.
A former Harlem charter school teacher who was arrested after authorities found a cache of bomb-making materials in his Bronx apartment was sentenced to 70 months in prison on Wednesday.
Christian Toro, 28, came under suspicion after a bomb threat was called in to the Harlem high school where he worked as a teacher on December 4, 2017.
Law enforcement arrested a 16-year-old student for making the bomb threat and discovered that she was having a sexual relationship with Toro, and that he had told her to call the school and say there’s a bomb in the building.
Around 9 months after authorities found a cache of bomb-making materials in their Bronx apartment, Christian Toro and Tyler Toro, both 28, pled guilty to explosives charges on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
Christian Toro came under suspicion in January after a bomb threat was called in to the Harlem high school where he worked as a teacher. A student was arrested for calling in the bomb threat, and Toro resigned abruptly a short time later. Shortly after he resigned, his brother returned a work laptop to the school, and a school employee found a copy of a bomb-making book on the laptop.
On Tuesday, November 13, Maximilien Reynolds, 21, of Rumson, New Jersey, pled guilty to one count of causing false statements to be made in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, and one count of possessing unregistered firearms including a semi-automatic rifle, a homemade silencer, and a homemade bomb, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Reynolds will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy on March 11, 2019.
Reynolds currently resides in Ithaca, New York. He is a part-time student at Tompkins-Cortland Community College on a leave of absence from Cornell University.
Maximilien Reynolds, 21, came to the attention of authorities when an employee of the Walmart store in Ithaca, New York, contacted the Ithaca Police Department on March 7 to report a suspicious purchase. A man later identified as Reynolds had used a gift card to buy ammunition, knives, drill bits, hacksaw blades, camping gear, tools, and other items.
According to the complaint, two local FBI agents and an officer from the Ithaca Police Department were dispatched to his apartment around 2 p.m. the same day.