One of the 14 victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, wrote in a Facebook post the day before the attack that he had received threats for days, including one that stated, “You will die and never see Israel.”
Thalasinos and his wife were members of Shiloh Messianic Congregation church in Crestline; he was outspoken about his conservative and pro-Israel views. Some of his online posts compared Muslims to Nazis.
His last post described a message from a Facebook member called “Med Ali Zarouk,” who wrote, “you will never sucsseed (sic) to make a country for jews… soon you’ll get your a– kicked, you will die and never see Israel as country believe me never.” On September 11, 2013, he posted, “On behalf of this guy… You can stick your Million Muslim March up your asses,” next to a photo of a shirtless victim plummeting from the burning World Trade Center in 2001.
After the massacre, one person posted on Thalasinos’s Facebook page, “Nick was very courageous and spoke the truth. It is my honest belief that Nicholas was murdered because of his alliance with Israel and Jewish people.”
Fellow San Bernardino County worker Vincent Armijo said Thalasinos was conservative and open about his views but was not aggressive about confronting others with them. That humility was evident in his Twitter name: @LeastServant.
Those who knew Thalasinos called him “wonderful and compassionate,” according to USA Today. He met his wife Jennifer online in 2001; he helped her take care of her parents. Talasinos had worked at the Inland Regional Center for roughly 12 years, and he worked with Syed Farook, one of the two terrorists responsible for the San Bernardino massacre.
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