Bomb Threats Against LAPD Car, Temple Charged as Hate Crimes

Wan Ryung Song, 46, was appeared in court Thursday afternoon

The case against a suspect accused of hate crimes in a bomb threat against Los Angeles' oldest Jewish temple and a nearby police car is on hold until a court can determine if he is competent to stand trial, authorities said Thursday.

Wan Ryung Song, 46, was arrested by Los Angeles Police Department Anti-Terrorist officers on Wednesday, after multiple phone threats made Tuesday in Koreatown generated a major response from the bomb squad.

On Thursday, at his arraignment hearing, Song was told to report to Mental Health Department of Los Angeles Superior Court on Jan. 3 to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney's office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons. The case is on hold until then, she said.

An NBC4 photographer and artist in the courtroom said Song yelled at the judge, saying things about North Korea and nuclear weapons and making anti-semitic statements. He was taken out of the courtroom and then brought back in with his hands cuffed behind his back, as pictured below.

Song was charged Wednesday with of multiple counts of making threats that are alleged as hate crimes.

His alleged repeated 911 calls from a pay phone in Koreatown prompted an extensive investigation of the area around Wilshire and Harvard Boulevards on Tuesday. Several streets were shut down for hours.

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Police on Tuesday said they first received a call at about 2 a.m. saying there was a bomb at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the oldest reform synagogue in LA. A police search found nothing.

Then, at about 8 a.m., police got additional calls saying a decoy patrol car in the area had been targeted with a bomb, authorities said Tuesday.

"No bombs were found, but anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled on a wooden construction wall on temple property," according to the DA's office.

Authorities said Song called from a spa about two blocks away from the temple. The area is home to multiple popular Korean day spas.

Song was charged with four felony counts of malicious informing of a false bomb, all alleged as hate crimes. He told 911 operators the bomb was in the trunk of the police car, according to the criminal complaint.

He was also charged with a felony count of vandalism of religious property, also alleged as a hate crime.

The complaint stated that last year he was convicted of making criminal threats, was convicted in 2009 of vandalism against religious property, and of vandalism in 2008.

If Song is found not to be competent to stand trial, he will sent to a mental health facility until he is found competent, Gibbons said.

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