ALBANY, NEW YORK - Robert J. Seifert, age 58, of Canandaigua, New York, pled guilty today to threatening to commit a mass shooting at the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Special Agent in Charge Donna L. Neves of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Office.
Seifert pled guilty to a charge of making an interstate threat to injure another. He admitted that on June 15, 2016, he made a phone call to a Veterans Crisis Line operator in Portland, Oregon, in which he stated “I got an Uzi and I wanna kill everybody at the Albany VA," “Watch what happens when I get to the Albany VA with my Uzi and I start shooting people up," and “I’m going to [expletive] kill everybody there."
Seifert has been in custody since July 14, 2016. As part of the plea agreement, the government and Seifert’s attorney asked the Court to impose a sentence of time served at the time of sentencing, as well as 3 years of post-imprisonment supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for July 28, 2017 before United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
