COCOA, Fla. – A 63-year-old Florida man was arrested Sunday after Mother’s Day church services were disrupted by suspicious packages and a threat of a bomb at two churches in Cocoa, deputies said.
Timothy Edward Stamant, of Cocoa, was arrested on charges of sending a written threat to kill or injure and disturbing the peace of a school, religious or lawful assembly.
The threats were made to Clearlake Baptist Church and Shield of Faith Ministries, both of which are located on Minnie Street.
OnMonday, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey shed light on a possible motive behind the threats in a Facebook video.
“He was mainly targeting what he was calling, ‘wokism.’ He was angry over taxes, over grifters, over the Ukraine situation,” the sheriff said in a Facebook video.
The video from the sheriff’s office also showed the packages.
Pastor Richard Russ, of Shield of Faith Ministries, was leading service when the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad arrived.
“This place was really swamped,” he said about the response.
Russ said at his church, the suspicious package only contained graffiti.
Across the street at Clearlake Baptist, Russ said the package there claimed it contained a bomb.
A dispatcher reported over the radio getting called by the church treasurer.
“They got an envelope,” the dispatcher said around 10:20 a.m. “There’s a bunch of stuff written on the outside about a bombing and (it said) ‘I’m the donation bomber’ on it.”
On security cameras, Russ showed News 6′s James Sparvero a person placing the package at the church’s door.
“And then he does the sign of the cross when he lays the package down,” Russ said. “Isn’t that stupid? I mean, I thought it was dumb.”
Before Stamant’s arrest, Russ said he hoped the video helped the sheriff’s office solve the case.
“He could not only bring harm to himself but bring harm to other people,” Russ said.
The pastor said he was not afraid of the threats.
Russ continued leading service Sunday with an evening session hours after the packages were discovered in the morning.
On Monday, Stamant faced Judge Ken Friedland on his charges.
Friedland ordered Stamant be held on a $201,000 bond.
The wife of the pastor at Clearlake Baptist said she will forgive the suspect.
“We will pray for that person,” Linda Crandall said. “If I do get the chance to meet him in person, I will tell him that we forgive him, but we don’t want it to happen again.”
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