(TJV NEWS) A 41-year-old man was arrested early Sunday after police say they discovered more than 200 improvised explosive devices inside a tent he’d pitched on the front steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral — just hours before the annual Red Mass that often draws Supreme Court justices. Court records reviewed by The Washington Post and police statements depict a scene of brazen threats, lethal-looking materials, and a handwritten manifesto denouncing the Catholic Church, the courts, and immigration authorities.

Metropolitan Police officers approached the man, later identified as Louis Geri of Vineland, New Jersey, after finding him camping on the cathedral steps despite being barred from the property. Officers say they found devices in his pockets and backpack and that he displayed capped vials of a liquid later described in reports as nitromethane — a compound linked historically to serious bombings — prompting the bomb squad and federal agencies to be called to the scene.

Court documents and police reports say Geri verbally boasted about his experience with explosives and made explicit threats to officers, at one point urging them to “call the federales” and offering to “test” devices on the street.

Authorities recovered Molotov cocktails, modified bottle rockets treated with pyrotechnic solutions, and his manifesto written in a notebook titled “Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives,” pages of which reportedly expressed hatred toward Catholicism, Judaism, Supreme Court justices, and ICE.

A review of the manifesto “revealed his significant animosity towards the Catholic church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS, and ICE/ ICE facilities,” the affidavit said.

Incendiary items were found on his person and in the tent; items were subsequently turned over to the FBI for forensic analysis, officials said. Local and national outlets note that, because of the security response, none of the justices were seen at the Mass and the investigation has drawn the involvement of federal bomb and arson investigators.

Geri has been charged in D.C. with possession of a destructive device and related offenses, including making threats; he is being held without bond while the probe continues. Multiple news organizations and the Metropolitan Police Department released details as authorities continue to sort evidence and determine any broader motive or connections.

(Reporting credited primarily to The Washington Post; additional reporting and official statements from the Metropolitan Police Department, CBS News,  Newsweek, WJLA and other local outlets were also consulted.)