State DOJ Identifies Suspect in Death Threats for State Senators

The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Divison of Criminal Investigation has found the suspect who threatened to kill several Republican state senators, according  to a news release from the DOJ.

Authorities made contact with the suspect, who admitted to sending two threatening messages to kill Gov. Scott Walker and members of the state Senate. The investigation is continuing and the DOJ is not releasing additional information.

Van Wanggaard represents most of Racine County, including Caledonia, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant. He confirmed Fri., March 11 that he received the email threat and that his family has also been the target of explicit threats.

"It's one thing to target me (with threats)," he said. "But we've gotten calls and messages saying exactly how they're going to hurt us." Threats have even extended to his daughter's Dalmation, which she takes to nursing homes as a therapy dog, Wanggaard added.

The DOJ and federal agencies are investigating, he said, but went on to say that this is not how democracy is supposed to work.

"If I'm not doing my job then residents can run against me or vote me out of office," he stated.

Here is an unedited threat that was e-mailed to targeted Republican senators that was provided by the Department of Justice in the news release:

I want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we've had enough. We feel that you and your republican dictators have to die. This is how it's going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it's a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, this isn't enough. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message. So we have built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won't tell you all of them because that's just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it's necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We will "get rid of" (in which I mean kill) the 8 of you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. The 8 includes the 7 senators and the dictator. We feel that it's worth our lives becasue we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. Goodbye ASSHOLE!!!!