Feds charge Pa. Air National Guardsman, Jewish woman with spray-painting antisemitic graffiti in Pittsburgh

Federal authorities have arrested a former Pennsylvania Air National Guard member described as a Hamas sympathizer and a Jewish woman from Pittsburgh in connection with vandalizing two Jewish organizations in the city over the summer.

Mohamad Hamad, 23, of Moon Township and Talya A. Lubit, 24, of Pittsburgh each face misdemeanor counts of defacing and damaging religious property and conspiracy.

Investigators said they linked the two to the vandalism at the Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh through surveillance videos, physical evidence and texts sent on the encrypted messaging app Signal.

According to a 20-page criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday, Hamad, who is both an American and Lebanese citizen, is a member of the Air National Guard in Moon. However, he has been barred from the Moon facility since Sept. 13.

The Air National Guard on Thursday referred questions to the FBI.

An FBI spokesman in Pittsburgh said he could not address any questions related to Hamad’s time with the Air National Guard, what his duties were there or anything else.

The Jewish Federation said Lubit had been connected with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community through attending various events.

As part of a joint investigation with Pittsburgh police, agents said they learned that Hamad bought explosives online in June under an alias and messaged someone about preparing for a test explosion. Hamad is not charged with any counts related to that purchase, however.

Both defendants appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday and were released on $50,000 unsecured bonds. They will remain on home detention with GPS monitoring and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the case on Nov. 6.

Neither Hamad nor Lubit could be reached for comment.

Videos and spray paint

According to the criminal complaint against Hamad and Lubit, officials at Chabad of Squirrel Hill, a synagogue on Beechwood Bouelvard, discovered graffiti on the outside of their building the morning of July 29. “Jews 4 Palestine” was written in red spray paint on the exterior stone, along with an inverted triangle, which is used as a pro-Hamas symbol.

That same day, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh reported that an entrance sign at its South Oakland location had been defaced with red paint reading, “Funds Genocide Jews, Hate Zionists,” with a red heart.

Investigators used video surveillance from the two locations to track the car used by the suspects that night.

Surveillance video at Chabad showed a convertible pulling up at 1:46 a.m. A person carrying a white can got out and ran across the lawn to the sign.

The suspect wore a black head covering that left only the eyes visible. A short time later, the person ran back to the car and left.

At 2:23 a.m., investigators said a similar vehicle entered the Jewish Federation parking lot and pulled up near the entrance sign.

License plate reading cameras and video surveillance tracked the vehicle, which had Ohio plates, as having traveled frequently in Oakland and Squirrel Hill.

The vehicle was ultimately tracked to Hamad’s residence in Coraopolis, the complaint said.

When investigators searched Hamad’s home and vehicles on Aug. 6, they found that his BMW convertible matched the vehicles in the surveillance videos.

They also found a can of paint and a sweatshirt with the words “RESPECT EXISTENCE OR EXPECT RESISTANCE.”

According to the investigation, Hamad used his debit card to buy “Strawberry Fields,” a red, high-gloss Rust-Oleum spray paint at Walmart in Robinson the day before.

Video and images from the store that day show Hamad buying the paint and leaving in a convertible.

On Hamad’s phone, investigators also found searches for “Chabad of Squirrel Hill.”

Link to Lubit

A Signal message string with Lubit in Hamad’s phone from June 1 revealed him discussing his desire to travel overseas to engage in violence, the complaint said.

“My ultimate goal in life is Shaheed, everything else doesn’t matter nearly as much, for me you are Jewish so that is more than allowed for me,” said a message included in the complaint.

Shaheed is a term used in the Islamic faith to describe a martyr.

“My goal sets are very different from the average person,” Hamad wrote, according to the complaint. “I don’t see myself living long;” and “For me it’s really hard to think long term.”

Hamad also wrote, “But my heart yearns for being with my brothers overseas.”

In another Signal message with a different person, Hamad sent a photograph that investigators believe is him wearing a mask and all black in a bathroom in his home holding a combination U.S. and Israeli flag with what appear to be the words “We Stand with Israel.”

“When the associate responded, ‘pull up lookin like that,’ Hamad replied, ‘I really did lmao. Imagine the terror they saw if they had cams. Hamas operative ripping off their flags in white suburbia.’”

The day after investigators executed their search warrants on Hamad and seized his cell phone, the complaint said, Lubit did a factory reset of her phone.

Investigators, however, were able to recover her messages to Hamad from his phone.

On July 27, investigators said, she wrote: “If I join you in doing graffiti on this building it matters to me that it is done in good taste. But any bank or anything else that’s not a religious institution I’m happy to trash.”

“I wish I knew how to paint damn.”

She continued: “We only have one shot cuz after that they will have much higher surveillance. I think it’s wise for them to see other buildings like PNC & stuff getting tr*shed first. So they’re not like ‘you’re targeting the Jews.’”

Then, she wrote, “oh [expletive] it. I’ll do it. The thing. Decorating Chabad.”

Four minutes later Lubit wrote, “trying to make it ugly and abnoxious [sic] feels like borderline desecration of religious place.”

“Like right before the line.”

Then several minutes later, “I can literally feel myself starting to see Jews as my enemies.”

The next day, according to the criminal complaint, Lubit wrote: “Scares me that I want revenge. I can feel it. Like, I’m ANGRY. I’m so tired of feeling like being Jewish means I have to second guess being anti oppression. I will not survive being Jewish if I don’t learn to get past that. I’ll just end up abandoning it.”

“I’m tired of the voice in my head, telling me that a Jew would not go with the oppressed.”

There were a string of additional messages from Lubit, investigators said:

“Every day I think ‘I don’t want to be Jewish anymore’”

“This feels kinda like a last ditch attempt at staying Jewish.”

“Actually, you’ve given me hope.”

Although no charges were filed stemming from Hamad’s purchase of explosives, the complaint noted that he bought four pounds of explosives under the name “Chris Petrenko” on June 10.

In Signal messages to a known associate, Hamad said he planned to practice lighting “a big shell” on July 6 “as a practice run for a future explosion,” the complaint said. Another message on June 29 mentioned “Talya.”

Hamad also shared a video of an explosive device detonating and a corresponding fireball with the message “Hell Yeah,” with a heart and smiley face emoji.

A different feeling

Shawn Brokos, the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said incidents of antisemitic vandalism have increased since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

But the two instances charged in this week’s criminal complaint, she said, felt different.

“These particular incidents felt a lot more threatening, a lot more targeted,” she said.

Brokos, a former FBI agent, said the criminal complaint lays out Hamad’s trajectory.

“You can see that path to radicalization reading the affidavit,” she said.

Brokos praised the investigation, including the community’s effort to assist law enforcement by reporting suspicious activity and checking their own Ring doorbells and other video for potential information.

“That’s essential to keeping our community safe,” Brokos said.