ORLANDO, Fla. – An Alaska man already facing charges in a double homicide is now under federal indictment on accusations he threatened to kill Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
A federal grand jury indicted Joshua Wahl of Dillingham, Alaska, on charges of threatening online to kill or seriously injure Chitwood. The indictment said Wahl emailed a threat against Chitwood in March. The indictment said the email included a link to Wahl’s YouTube channel, where he used a laser to burn a hole in a photo of Chitwood’s face, and also held explosives in front of a picture of the sheriff.
Records show Wahl posted threats to “blind and kill Chitwood” several times in April.
Chitwood has repeatedly been threatened online since February when he said he would take a stand against growing instances of antisemitism in Florida. Several people have been arrested for making similar threats against Chitwood, including suspects in New Jersey, California, Connecticut and Canada.
Not every loser threatening violence on the Internet gets caught
— Mike Chitwood (@SheriffChitwood) September 26, 2023
But I’m glad one more is getting a dose of reality
Thank you @USAO_AK https://t.co/zQcY1TrBIU
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“I know first-hand what it’s like, and I wouldn’t wish anybody to go through what my family went through,” Chitwood told News 6. “Fortunately for me, I shoot back, but I worry about other people in our community here being targeted for their race and their religion and their ethnicity or sexual orientation.”
Despite the concerns, Chitwood said he hoped that Wahl had done more to threaten him.
“I just wish he would’ve pushed the envelope a little bit more where I could’ve got an arrest warrant here for him,” Chitwood said. “Brought him back here, we may have been able to save two lives.”
The prosecutors in the Wahl indictment said Wahl had posted antisemitic messages on 4chan before. The indictment specifically mentions an instance in November 2019, when he threatened to kill all Jewish and Israeli children, and included a photo of a pipe bomb.
Wahl is also under indictment in Alaska after the August murder of two people — Timothy Evans, 31, and Jennifer Gardiner, 32.
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