Advisory: This article includes a verbatim account of graphic threats of violence.
The man in the video ran a knife against his throat. Then he pointed what he identified as an Uzi at the camera.
“You decide,” the man taunted.
A 47-year-old Westville man — who identifies himself as a reverend of “the Satanic Church” — allegedly sent that death-threat-leaden video, plus two others like it, to a younger female co-worker at a New Haven food company.
Cops armed with rifles staked out the man’s Fountain Street home Tuesday afternoon and arrested him, peacefully concluding an episode that left the woman and her family feeling terrorized, according to police major crimes boss Lt. Tony Reyes.
The episode began last week when the man allegedly brought what looked like a gun to his job and pointed it at the head of the co-worker, threatening to kill her, Reyes said. The company sent the man home.
The gun turned out to be a b.b. gun facsimile. The woman didn’t know that.
On Sunday the man then allegedly emailed two videos to the woman, a third on Monday.
The videos, viewed Thursday, show the man alternately displaying the Uzi facsimile and a long knife.
He tells the woman she can choose between having him decapitate her with the knife or shoot her dead with the Uzi.
“Have a nice day,” he adds.
“Let me introduce you to my Israeli friend. Uzi,” he tells the camera. He loads it, points the weapons at the camera. “Oh yeah,” he growls.
“You’re a real pain in the ass,” he continues. “Lock and load, bitch. This could be for you. Keep up this sheet … [This] could be shoved in your ass.”
The woman didn’t tell her boss about the videos, according to Sgt. Elisa Tuozzoli. She told another employee. That’s how the boss and the police found out.
The company didn’t have records of where the man lives, but the police found him in their database: He’s currently on probation.
Tuesday around 1 p.m. officers went to the Fountain Street apartment complex where he lives with another former employee of the food company. The cops surrounded the door, rifles ready. After about a half hour the man emerged from the building, unarmed.
He didn’t put up a fight. He didn’t even flinch, police said; rather he “smirked.”
Sgt. Tuozzoli said the man identified himself as a “reverend of the Satanic Church” and told cops he made the videos as “a joke.” Tuozzoli said the man and the co-worker did not have a romantic or personal relationship of any sort. She said he claimed he based the threats on lyrics from a metal band called Five Finger Death Punch.
Police obtained a warrant to search the building, where they found four authentic-looking b.b. gun facsimiles, a scope, “gun-cleaning material,” and a knife matching the one used in the videos, lying in the room where the videos were allegedly shot.
Police charged the man with first-degree threatening, harassment, and reckless endangerment. The state added a criminal weapons possession charge. The man, who has not yet entered a plea, remains in jail on a $750,000 bond.
“We have no comment,” a member of the company stated when reached by phone Thursday. “There is nothing to discuss.”
Why do you report criminal activity without naming the people arrested? The people have a right to know who is perpetrating crimes in their community. Why protect the identities of those those accused? Are arrest reports not public record? Freedom of information laws require the release of such information. The Register does it. What's up with the Independent.
If I lived in Westville near this nut, I would want to know what was going on and I would depend on the press to inform me!
[Editor: Our policy is to withhold names of the accused until it is proven whether or not the person is guilty. There are some exceptions, including for public figures. This person is in custody. Too many people are found to be not guilty but have had their reputations permanently tarnished by having their names mentioned in press accounts upon their arrests.]