Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says the FBI has confirmed she was one of the targets of a "heavily armed" man who threatened to kill Jewish officials. Investigators say Jack Eugene Carpenter III tweeted on Feb. 17: "I’m heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish in the Michigan govt if they don’t leave, or confess," NBC reports. The FBI says Carpenter, a Michigan resident, was in Texas when he sent the tweet, reports the Detroit Free Press. He has been charged with transmitting an interstate threat, a felony with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
A criminal complaint filed Feb. 18 states that Carpenter's mother told investigators that he possessed "three handguns, a 12 gauge shotgun, and two hunting rifles, one of which is an MIA, military-style weapon." In tweet Thursday, Nessel said the FBI told her she was a target. "It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials," she said. Other Jewish officials in the state include US Rep. Elissa Slotkin and several state representatives and senators, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.
The University of Michigan says Carpenter worked for the university for 10 years and was let go in 2021, the JTA reports. In other tweets from the account linked to Carpenter, he promoted QAnon conspiracy theories, said he "was fired for refusing to take experimental medication," and suggested Jews had created COVID vaccines to control the world, per the JTA. He claimed to be forming a new country on his property and threatened numerous public figures, including Elon Musk. He said he would have the Twitter CEO captured and "publicly hanged" if blocks on his account weren't removed. (More Michigan stories.)
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