Officials Find Journal With Antisemitic Comments After Livingston School Bus Theft: Feds

LIVINGSTON, NJ — The man accused of driving a stolen Livingston school bus across state lines faces federal charges after investigators found his journal containing antisemitic messages and references to war inside it, prosecutors said Monday.

Bader Alzahrani, 22, of Saudi Arabia, was charged Monday with receipt of a stolen vehicle and transportation of a stolen vehicle, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.

An investigation of a Hillside Avenue home break-in on Jan. 15 — two days before the bus was stolen from a nearby community center — led investigators to Alzahrani, after they found a backpack with a Saudi Arabian passport and journals inside it, federal officials said.

The journals, written in Arabic and English, included messages about war, rage and destruction, prosecutors said.

“This is a war, and there will be losses, and collateral losses," the journal reads in Arabic, according to a federal complaint. “It is a war and y’all [sic] started, feel the rage.”

Alzahrani also wrote, prosecutors contend: "Jews control everything."

The complaint says that Alzahrani "is in the United States on a student visa. However, in or around October 2022, Alzahrani left the university in which he was enrolled and was reported missing."

In the days after the bus was stolen, various North Jersey officials warned parents to make sure they were putting their kids on the correct school bus. READ MORE: Update On School Bus Theft In Livingston: Suspect's Name Released

Alzahrani was found in Stroudsburg, Pa., with keys to the school bus on him two days after the bus disappeared, prosecutors said.

Alzahrani was scheduled to make an appearance Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward S. Kiel in Newark federal court.

Each count charged in the complaint is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the office said.

READ MORE: After Bus Is Stolen, Officials Tight-Lipped

READ MORE: Man Arrested After FBI Probes Stolen School Bus From Livingston

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