An Illinois man was arrested for allegedly threatening violence against Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in comments below a post mourning the victims of last week’s shooting at the Annunciation Catholic Church.
Caden J. Sluder, 22, faces a felony charge for threats of violence for the disturbing online scrawlings. He was charged via warrant Wednesday in Ramsey Country District Court, located in Minnesota.
The comments that landed Sluder in hot water were left on Flanagan’s posts on X, offering her condolences to the victims of the horrific school shooting that left two children dead.
“You should be genuinely shot and killed,” read the first comment, shared by the since-suspended X account “Ifoke75949.”
“You should be strung up by the neck,” a second added on the lieutenant governor’s post thanking first responders, before ending on a final hashtag with a shortened version of “End Peggy Flanagan’s Life.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension tracked Sluder down using the IP address linked to the suspended X account, according to a criminal complaint.
A state trooper reached the keyboard criminal on Aug. 27. He apologized and claimed that the violent threats were meaningless jokes he had no intention of actually following through on.
Sluder added that he was upset that Christians were killed in the shooting and pointed to Flanagan’s previous support towards transgender people, including wearing a “trans shirt” in public, according to the complaint.
Robin Westman, the gunman who opened fire inside the Annunciation Catholic Church during a school opening mass last week, identified as a transgender woman but wrote about gravitating away from his previously held trans identity shortly before the mass shooting.
Many comments still left on Flanagan’s posts disturbingly mirror Sluder’s alleged threats.
“You and every subhuman who has ever worn that [trans] shirt need to be rounded up,” one user commented.
“GO AFTER THE POLITICIANS THAT INCITED THIS VIOLENCE! Flanagan is one of them,” another added.
The vast majority of school shooters have been straight, cisgender men.
Minnesota politicians have been on high alert since state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, was assassinated in her home alongside her husband in June.
That same night, State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot by the same crazed gunman, but survived.
Vance Boelter, the alleged assassin who dressed up as a police officer to lure the officials into opening their front doors, was indicted on six counts, including for killing the Hortmans and attempting to kill the Hoffmans.
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