Federal Charges After Threats To 'Shoot Up' New Rochelle Sports Bar

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Threats of a mass shooting at a popular New Rochelle sports bar this weekend led to an arrest and federal charges, according to the FBI.

Jayleen Mota, 21, of the Bronx, was arrested Sunday and charged in White Plains federal court with making threatening interstate communications, in which she threatened to shoot up the Buffalo Wild Wings location in New Rochelle on Saturday night, federal and local authorities said in a news release.

"Actual or threatened gun violence cannot be tolerated," said Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. "Simply put, those who place the public in fear by engaging in or threatening the use of violence will be held accountable. This Office commends the swift action of the New Rochelle Police Department and the FBI in quickly tracking down this threat."

According to court documents, New Rochelle police received a call on Saturday from a person who had received an initial text message from an unknown person, later identified as Mota, threatening to "shoot up" the popular nationwide chain restaurant and sports bar located on LeCount Place in New Rochelle. The text message further stated that there would be a "massacre" and "lots of people are going down."

A subsequent text message stated that "[t]odays a busy night because of the game DON’T TAKE ME AS A JOKE lots of people will die DON’T CALL THE STORE AND RUIN MY PLANS I’m gonna make the news," according to federal law enforcement.

Also on Saturday, the NRPD received a call from a second person who had received an identical text message from an unknown person threatening to "shooting[] up" the restaurant and commit a "massacre," again stating, "lots of people are going down."

The NRPD took the phone number from which the threats were sent and traced the number back to Mota. On Saturday evening, pursuant to a search warrant, the FBI and New Rochelle police searched Mota’s apartment and found both Mota and the cellphone from which she sent the threats. After informing Mota of her Miranda rights, she consented to being interviewed and admitted that she had sent text messages threatening to shoot up the restaurant to five separate people.

"As alleged, Ms. Mota sent a series of text messages in which she threatened to commit a mass shooting at a crowded New Rochelle restaurant," said Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI. "Communicating threats like those we allege she made can waste valuable law enforcement resources and cause unnecessary alarm in our communities. Today’s charges should serve as a reminder for all that the FBI takes these types of threats seriously, and there will be consequences for those who make them."

Mota will be presented in White Plains federal court on Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause.

"I want to commend the New Rochelle Police detectives, members of the Westchester County Department of Public Safety's Real Time Crime Center, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's Office," said Robert Gazzola, the commissioner of the New Rochelle Police Department. "They worked quickly and diligently to identify and arrest the individual who allegedly made threats of mass violence directed at a local New Rochelle restaurant. It is a testament to the professional cooperation that exists in law enforcement today. The New Rochelle Police Department does not tolerate such acts and will make every effort to identify and arrest anyone making such threats."

Mota is charged with making threatening interstate communications, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Williams praised the investigative efforts of the NRPD and the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, which consists of investigators and analysts from the FBI and other New York state and local agencies.