DENVER (KCNC) — A Phoenix man who traveled across the western U.S. to sneak backpacks into Christian churches in three states was simultaneously assembling bomb-making materials in Colorado, according to a federal investigation. He was convicted Friday of a federal hate crime.
A federal jury in Sacramento, Calif., returned a guilty verdict against Zimnako Salah, 45, to conclude an 11-day trial.
Salah, between September and November of 2023, traveled to four Christian churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado while wearing black backpacks. At two of those churches, Salah planted the backpacks, “placing congregants in fear that they contained bombs,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated in a press release…