NC man is arrested for threatening FEMA officials after Trump spent weeks lying about them

Rutherford County sheriff’s deputies arrested a man armed with an assault rifle and a handgun who was overheard threatening to hurt FEMA officials this weekend. Trump, Mark Robinson, and others have spread lies over the last two weeks accusing Democrats and FEMA of neglect and predatory behavior. 

Over the last two weeks, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and others have spread lies about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene, suggesting or outright accusing Democrats and FEMA officials of illegally seizing property in western North Carolina and plotting to deny aid to Republicans in those areas in order to steal the election.

The disinformation is linked to an increase in threats against federal and state officials, a recent study shows, including direct threats made on Saturday that caused FEMA officials to temporarily suspend some operations in some counties. 

On Saturday, Rutherford County sheriff deputies arrested a North Carolina man armed with an assault rifle and a handgun who was overheard threatening to hurt FEMA officials. 

The man, William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic, N.C., was taken into custody in the parking lot of a grocery store where a FEMA bus was parked. 

Authorities have not released information about Parsons’ possible intentions, but his social media accounts show support for Trump, a history of conspiracy theories, and support for far-right militias, The New York Times reported. 

‘Using people’s misery to sow chaos’

In a press conference on Tuesday alongside FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell, Gov. Roy Cooper did not mention Trump by name, but he said there was a clear line between the lies being told, the threats being made, and the effect on the recovery.

“Candidates are using people’s misery to sow chaos for their own political objectives,” Cooper said. “And it’s wrong.”

The threats to FEMA officials are not the only harm that comes from the disinformation tied to Helene, Cooper said.

Mark Robinson appears not to have expressly cited the most extreme FEMA conspiracies, but he has accused the state and federal government of failing to respond, which is also demonstrably untrue.

The full spectrum of lies creates an environment of distrust that can be almost as harmful as direct threats to shoot federal officials. 

“Clearly when people assert that help is not coming to western North Carolina … which is a lie, the people who are actually on the ground helping feel demoralized,” Cooper said. “We don’t know how many people are not going to apply for FEMA [aid] because they’ve heard misinformation about FEMA taking their property or other wild accusations that are out there.”

He added: “It’s ending up hurting people who’ve lost everything.”

Criswell, who last week called the disinformation a “truly dangerous narrative,” said that the threats against federal officials need to stop, but that they wouldn’t prevent FEMA from bringing Western NC the help it needs.

Released on bond

Parsons lives about an hour away from Lake Lure and Chimney Rock, the subject of some of the darkest disinformation and conspiracy theories tied to the storm.

He was overheard making the threats at a gas station in Polk County, The Times reported, and the threats were passed on to law enforcement, who traced Parsons to the grocery store. 

Early reports said that truckloads of armed militia members were driving around Lake Lure and Chimney Rock hunting for FEMA officials, but the Rutherford County Sheriff’s office said Parsons was working alone. 

Between reports of the threat and Parsons’ arrest, FEMA officials paused activities in the area, including the door to door visits asking residents if they had what they needed.

Parsons, who was released on a $10,000 bond, was charged with “going armed to the terror of the public,” a misdemeanor, the sheriff’s department said on Monday.

‘These are members of your community’

While much of the online threats so far have been directed at federal aid officials, there is also concern that with early voting set to begin in North Carolina on Thursday, threats against  election officials could increase as well.

In a press call on Tuesday, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, said that election officials had not yet received any threats that needed to be passed to law enforcement, but she reminded people that anyone threatening local elections officials is also threatening their neighbors. 

“When you do that you are threatening someone who is your former English teacher, your former scoutmaster, your basketball coach, the person you pass in the grocery store,” Brinson Bell said.

“They are members of your community.”