A Massachusetts man has been arrested by the feds in New York after threatening U.S. immigration agents on Twitter.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts man identified as 33-year-old Brandon Ziobrowski, was arrested on Thursday morning after he posted on Twitter in July that he would give $500 to anyone who would kill an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
According to the indictment, 33-year-old Brandon Ziobrowski had also tweeted that he wanted to “slit” Sen. John McCain’s throat. Then he began to post tweets promoting violence against law enforcement.
In March he tweeted threatening messages to ICE, according to the indictments.
On July 2, he tweeted: “I am broke but I will scrounge and literally give $500 to anyone who kills an ice agent. @me seriously who else can pledge get it on this let’s make it work.”
Officials noted that Ziobrowski’s “communist, socialist and anarchist” tweets grew more violent and threatening as time passed. At one point, Lelling said the suspect tweeted “shooting a cop should get you a medal.”
His Twitter account was suspended later that month at the request of law enforcement.
The case was brought forth by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston, and Ziobrowksi was arrested in New York at 7:15 a.m.
“I can promise you that during my tenure this office will aggressively prosecute those who threaten law enforcement officers,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling.
“Enough is enough,” said Hank Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office. “This case presents the violent potential faced by federal law enforcement officers.”