A Philadelphia man claiming to be a member of the Proud Boys pleaded guilty to charges connected to multiple incidents in which he aimed violent, race-based threats at several Black people, including one instance in which he launched a racist road rage outburst at a Black female driver.
Mark Anthony Tucci, 44, was arrested in January and charged in March with one count each of a threat to use a dangerous weapon, interfering with federally protected activities, cyberstalking, interstate communication of threats, and threats interfering with federally protected activities, according to the Department of Justice.
According to a criminal affidavit, Tucci repeatedly called and sent text messages and emails containing racially derogatory terms, slurs, and violent threats to a Black employee with the city of Philadelphia.
Between April and June 2024, Tucci emailed the city employee several times to follow up on a records request he made to the agency. Things escalated in June when he started repeatedly calling the agency and screaming at the worker on the phone. The employee hung up each time.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tucci then sent texts to the employee’s personal phone number, mentioned the individual by name and the street name where that person lived, and wrote, “This is personal now” and “Can’t hang up on me in person.”
Federal prosecutors never revealed how Tucci got the victim’s personal phone number.
He also followed up his texts with more emails to the employee, in which he repeatedly used racist slurs, and signed at least one, “Thank You Mark.”
Tucci also called the city agency back, spoke with two of the victim’s colleagues, and started using racial epithets, threatening to visit the city agency and “hurt everyone,” and said he knew one Black employee’s home address and “was going to hurt” that person.
He also “stated several times that he was a part of the Proud Boys,” according to the criminal complaint. The Proud Boys is a far-right, nationalist group that maintains affiliations with extremists and is known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
During a search of Tucci’s electronic devices, federal investigators found a PDF file of “The Great Replacement,” a 74-page manifesto by a mass shooter who killed 51 people and injured dozens of others at two New Zealand mosques in 2019.
Authorities also discovered “videos celebrating white supremacist accelerationism and Neo-Nazism, including multiple videos celebrating Nazi salutes and Hitler; racist images and memes; and songs from a white supremacist rapper that include numerous references to [killing Black people] and creating an all-white society.”
Court documents say that the city worker whom Tucci texted “feared that Tucci would find them, and seriously injure or kill them or their family members.”
The victim started carrying mace and “went out of their way to make their pattern of life unpredictable for months after the incident, in case Tucci was following them.”
Court filings also cite another instance when Tucci violently threatened a Black female driver on Feb. 1, 2024.
That day, Tucci drove up next to a car in heavy traffic on I-95 south, lowered his windows, and repeatedly screamed racial epithets and threats to kill and shoot the Black driver, federal prosecutors state. He reportedly yelled, “I’m going to kill you [racial expletive]! I’m going to shoot you!”
He then pulled out a glass mug containing coffee and threw it at her car, damaging her vehicle.
Tucci will be sentenced in December and faces a maximum of 21 years in prison for his crimes.