Nicholas Ray of Spring, Texas, was arrested for allegedly making death threats against Jews in conservative media in Florida and is to be extradited to the Sunshine State, James Uthmeier, the Florida attorney general, stated on Monday.
Uthmeier stated that his office was alerted to “multiple, specific death threats” against Jewish conservatives last week. He said Ray faces charges of extortion, written threats to kill and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
“I’m so happy to live in Florida, where my attorney general takes seriously and acts against threats to Floridians,” Karol Markowicz, a Jewish columnist at New York Post and Fox News, who was among those threatened, told JNS.
Josh Hammer, senior editor-at-large at Newsweek, was also among those threatened.
“God bless Florida,” Hammer told JNS. “That’s pretty much my thought on the matter.”
Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylon Bee, said he also received threats. “I have a family. I want my children to grow up with a father, and I’d like to live to see them have children of their own some day,” he wrote. “If you threaten to kill me, I will report you, and you will be arrested and charged.”
Dillon wrote that Ray is 28. He posted what appeared to be a screen capture of his communication with the suspect.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who is Jewish, wrote that during his career in public service in the state, “I have been subject to two credible death threats that the amazing team at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has had to investigate and arrest.”
“One of my wishes was for our state attorneys to speak more loudly that in Florida, if you make threats, you will end up in prison for a very long time,” he wrote. “I am glad to see that is exactly what is happening here.”
