Montco man charged with threatening township

James Gallagher's plans to "destroy" Springfield Township in Montgomery County were written all over his Facebook, police said yesterday.

In several photos and messages posted on the social-networking site, Gallagher, 22, of the township's Wyndmoor section, boasted of his white pride, his arsenal of guns and his desire to kill people, investigators said.

"i will destroy Springfield no1 here got guns like me," he wrote, according to his arrest affidavit.

After police were alerted to the page on Sept. 2 by an observant Facebook friend of Gallagher's, a detective went undercover and requested to be Gallagher's friend so that he could see the private account, according to court documents.

A search warrant was served on Gallagher's home the day that the detective viewed the account, Springfield Township Police Chief Randall Hummel said.

"We didn't play around when we got that information," he said.

Inside, police found ammunition and numerous weapons, including a Ruger Mini 14 rifle, an AR-15 rifle and an AK-47, Hummel said.

Police also found white-supremacist flags reading "White Pride, World Wide," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman said.

Ferman credited the Springfield police for taking action on the threats, which she described as aimed at the community rather than a specific individual.

"One of the things, when we look at someone who is making threats, is are they just talking or do they have the capacity to carry out the violence they are threatening?" she said. "Clearly, there was an immediate capacity in this case to do great harm to other people."

Gallagher was charged with disorderly conduct, possessing instruments of a crime and terroristic threats. He's jailed in lieu of $1 million bail and has a preliminary hearing today, Ferman said.

According to court documents, Gallagher's Facebook rants ranged from the racial - "WHITE PRIDE, WORLD WIDE" - to the homicidal - "LETS KILL PEOPLE" - to the overtly profane and unprintable.

Photos that he had posted on his page, which has been taken down, showed him holding numerous weapons, including an AK-47 with a bayonet, the affidavit said.