Man making death threat to Rep. Ilhan Omar had over 1,000 bullets and illegal guns – By Emily Kopp (Roll Call) / April 23 2019
‘Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood?’ the man allegedly asked a staffer
Law enforcement discovered a cache of ammunition and illegal guns in the New York home of a man arrested after threatening to shoot Rep. Ilhan Omar, federal prosecutors say.
Patrick W. Carlineo Jr., 55, is said to have called the office of the Minnesota congresswoman in March to threaten her life and repeat an anti-Muslim conspiracy theory.
“Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she’s a [expletive] terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her [expletive] skull,” Carlineo said in the call, according to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
Omar, along with fellow freshman Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, is one of the first Muslim women in history to be elected to Congress.
During a police search of Carlineo’s Steuben County home, officers confiscated six firearms, including an AK-47 and a .45-caliber handgun, federal prosecutors said in a bail hearing Monday, local CBS affiliate WROC reported.
Carlineo was charged with threatening to assault and murder a United States official, a story on the station’s website said.
The guns were owned illegally, because Carlineo was previously convicted of a felony, WROC reported.
Prosecutors say the alleged death threat to Omar’s office was made on the afternoon of March 21.
Carlineo’s attorney argued that what was said in the call, which was not recorded, is in dispute. Carlineo maintains he said, “If our forefathers were still alive, they would put a bullet in [Omar’s] skull,” according to Rochester First.
The alleged call, traced to Carlineo’s girlfriend, was made before a recent surge in death threats to Omar.
Those threats followed a video tweeted by President Donald Trump that interspersed remarks she made to a Muslim civil rights organization with footage from the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi contacted the House Sergeant at Arms to ensure the U.S. Capitol Police would conduct a security assessment to protect Omar, her family and staff.
Omar has been the target of Islamophobic conspiracy theories throughout her early tenure in office.
