A Texas man was arrested and is set for extradition for sending death threats to several Jewish, pro-Israel, or conservative media commentators last week, Florida Attorney-General James Uthmeier announced on Monday.
Spring resident Nicholas Ray is facing charges in Florida of extortion, written threats to kill, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device, Uthmeier said on X/Twitter.
Those who claimed to have been targeted by Ray included Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, conservative journalist Laura Loomer, New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz, and author Josh Hammer.
Social media threats
Dillon shared a screenshot of a social media account he alleged to be controlled by Ray, which claimed that the Christian satirist had conspired with a foreign government about the assassination of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk.
“We’re gonna get you, I promise. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but you’re living on borrowed time, and you know it.”
Dillion noted that the account allegedly belonging to Ray had only followed a handful of anti-Israel accounts and far-right commentator Candace Owens. Owens has been pushing a conspiracy theory in which conservative commentators such as Hammer, Dillon, and TPUSA were supposedly involved in an inside Israel-tied plot to murder Kirk.
“Where do you think he got the idea that I was involved in Charlie’s murder?” Dillon wrote.
On October 8, the account accused Hammer of being an Israeli spy and threatened to hang him “at the capitol and take turns beating you with a piñata bat.”
Dillon and Loomer thanked Uthmeier and Florida officials for taking action against the suspect. Loomer said on X that she had been targeted by Ray because he was “radicalized by the false accusations that I am a foreign agent, and then he proceeded to make a serious and credible threat against my life.”
On October 8, the account allegedly belonging to Ray threatened Loomer, saying, “You’re gonna die, little foreign agent,” and a day later warned, “You’re gonna get hung for being a foreign agent, and I’ll bake 100 cakes.”
Markowicz was threatened by the account on October 13, accusing her of being responsible for the crime of the Soviet Union and telling her that she deserved to be hanged and to “watch your f**king back.”
“Your ancestors are responsible for the Holodomor and now Gaza. You are a genociding [sic] Satan bloodline, and you will be eradicated one of these days,” wrote the account.
The account also told Charlie Kirk Show producer Andrew Kolvet that he was an “Israeli asset” on October 13 and conservative commentator Zack Bonfilio that he would hang him in front of his family several times.