LI Target Of Violent LGBTQ+ Threats: 'Why Should We Live In Fear?

SAYVILLE, NY—Robert Fehring, a Bayport man charged with sending violent threats to LGBTQ+ organizations and leaders, targeted the New York City Pride March and a major Long Island pride event in East Meadow, federal officials said Monday. And Sayville, a hamlet that prides itself on its decades of inclusivity, was also in his cross-hairs, a woman in one of the groups reportedly targeted by Fehring told Patch.

Sayville Chamber of Commerce President Eileen Tyznar said she received disturbing and graphic threats from Fehring for three years. He was furious that Sayville had begun a pride parade in 2019, and his letters, detailing violence and containing hate-filled pejoratives, would escalate as the summer months and Sayville's pride events approached, she alleged. Eventually all members of the Sayville Chamber board were getting letters, she said.

As Tyznar waited for the police to investigate the threats, she tried to continue with her mission of creating the pride events but she found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, she told Patch.

"I was petrified but I didn't want it to sideline what we were trying to do," she said.

The chamber tried to increase security at the 2019 parade and the 2020 car parade, even asking friends with dump trucks to park at either end of the route in case someone tried to drive onto the course, Tyznar said. Tyznar said she and the board didn't know if the letter writer was a lone individual or a group affiliated with other extreme hate groups.

Robert Fehring, a 74-year-old retired Bellport teacher and coach, was arrested on Monday on federal charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Eastern District office.

In addition to the federal mail case, Fehring faces charges from Suffolk police, who arrested him on Tuesday morning and charged him with stealing multiple pride flags and breaking flag brackets at locations along Railroad Avenue in Sayville between July 23 and 26, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Tyznar said it "killed" her to not be able to explain to the Sayville community that the flags were gone because they were stolen in the night, since details were part of the ongoing federal investigation.

"They were snapped off violently," she explained. "Thousands of dollars of flags and equipment we raised."

Tyznar said that in her opinion, she believes Fehring would have eventually acted on his violent threats.

A police search of Fehring's Bayport home found letters, two two loaded shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two stun guns, a machete and an envelope addressed to an LGBTQ-affiliated attorney with a dead bird inside, a complaint unsealed Monday said.

One of Fehring's threats included a mass shooting that he said would make the 2016 Orlando Pulse nightclub attack "look like a cakewalk," according to the complaint, unveiled in court Monday.

"Thank God for the FBI's hate crimes unit and for Suffolk's Fifth Precinct," Tyznar said, commending the quick action to prevent what she believed would have been certain violence.

"I think about myself standing up on a truck, leading the parade, as the marshal, and what he could have done. I didn't want to ever put others like my board members at risk but at the same time I didn't want it to stop me from trying to show that Sayville is inclusive and we love all members of our community," she said.

Knowing Fehring lived so close to what Tyznar says is a "beautiful bubble of Sayville" shook her, but she said she hopes the justice system deals with Fehring seriously to deter any other similar crimes in the future.

"Why should we live in fear? This is Sayville," she said.