BOSTON – An Amherst, Mass., man pleaded guilty on Sept. 21, 2026 in federal court in Springfield to making violent threats via social media targeting a variety of law enforcement officers and sensitive locations such as a grocery store and a federal building in Boston.
Luke Brissie, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transmission of threatening communications. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni scheduled sentencing for Jan. 5, 2027. Brissie was arrested and charged in June 2025 and remains in federal custody.
On April 5, 2025, Brissie sent numerous threatening communications through Instagram to a Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officer in Tennessee. In the messages, Brissie threatened to bomb the officer’s patrol vehicle or home, shoot the officer, kill another Nashville police officer, commit a mass stabbing at a grocery store near his home in Massachusetts and bomb an FBI building. Specifically, Brissie sent threatening messages that said: “I will put a bomb in your police car or better yet your house,” “I’m going to commit mass stabbing at a grocery store called big [] y…” and “…then I’ll bomb an fbi building.”
Brissie was arrested at his residence in Amherst, Mass., after the threats were reported. Law enforcement learned that Brissie had intended to lure the Nashville police officer to Massachusetts so he could carry out the threatened violence. Law enforcement also became aware of Brissie’s intentions to bomb the FBI Boston Field Office and conduct a mass stabbing at a nearby grocery store.
The charge of interstate transmission of threatening communications provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Amherst Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Caroline Merck of the Springfield Office is prosecuting the case.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Massachusetts — U.S. Department of Justice press release.