A woman has died after Georgia police received an email from a Russian IP address that said the sender had left a bomb in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s mailbox.
A police officer who was traveling with the bomb squad to meet his colleagues at the headquarters hit another car, killing its driver, the Rome Police Department said in a press release.
“I’m having a heart attack right now,” Greene wrote in a post on X.
The department received an email Friday night titled “For Palestine” that said the sender built the bomb using “1×8-inch tin pipe, end caps, a kitchen timer, some wire, metal clips and homemade black powder.” “
“It will be gone by the weekend but it will explode the next time anyone opens the mailbox,” said the rather strange threat, which Greene shared in a press release. “Even if Marjorie doesn’t open the mailbox, I’m still satisfied with the hope that other pig policemen lose their lives or get injured. VIVA VIVA PALESTINA [SIC].”
The message first went into the department’s spam folder before it was discovered Monday morning, police said. The email included the congressman’s correct home address, so an assistant sheriff contacted Greene’s team. They confirmed that the congressman was not there and sent a bomb squad to check the mailbox, which was empty.
It was at least the ninth time Greene was “hit,” when fake emergency calls were made to spark a large police response, the lawmaker said.
The congressman shared a short video of a bomb squad searching his mailbox. / Screenshot/Marjorie Taylor Greene
But the situation took a turn for the worse when one of the policemen who was responding to the threat met with an accident on the way to the police headquarters.
Sgt. David Metroka, a member of the Floyd County bomb squad, was driving his pickup truck, a GMC Sierra, when he crashed into a Mazda Protégé that was pulling out of a parking lot, Rome police said. The driver of the Mazda, Tammie Pickelsimer, 66, was rushed to the hospital, where she died from her injuries.
Metroka received minor injuries and was released from the hospital.
“These violent political threats have deadly consequences,” Greene wrote in X. “It is an unnecessary pressure on the law enforcement officers who should take them seriously.”
Greene said his prayers are with Pickelsimer’s family and the officer involved, and that his office is working with local and state law enforcement — including the FBI — to catch whoever sent the bomb threat.
A spokesperson for the Rome Police Department confirmed that the FBI seized the case after local police determined there was no threat at Greene’s home.
Greene “personally reached out to our Assistant Chief Rodney Bailey last night, expressing his sadness and sympathy for the incident,” public information specialist Kelly Madden told The Daily Beast.
The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the fatal crash, he added.
“The Rome Police Department extends its condolences to the Pickelsimer family during this difficult time,” the department said in a statement. “The department holds the person responsible for sending the threatening email fully accountable for setting this chain of events in motion.”
The police, however, admitted that the bomb threat “does not require emergency assistance.”
“The Rome Police Department continues to work with Congresswoman Greene’s staff to address the growing concern of ongoing incidents and implement policies to ensure that emergency responses only occur when absolutely necessary,” the department said in a statement.
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