YARMOUTH – After threats were made on the Yarmouth Police Department’s Facebook page earlier this week, police are filing charges.
The posts, which police say were written by a man who lives out of state, involved alleged threats to shoot and kill police officers.
After the threats were made, Yarmouth Police contacted police in the town of the man who made the threat and that department is filing charges, according to Yarmouth Deputy Police Chief Steven Xiarhos.
But Xiarhos said yesterday that the Yarmouth Police Department would also file charges.
“We intend to try to bring charges and the authorities in that state intend to do so as well,” said Xiarhos. “But even if for some reason we can’t, we must make people accountable for threatening to kill police officers.”
Yarmouth police said the man’s identity has been confirmed and that he has a long and violent criminal record.
Local police in the man’s town were notified and further action is pending in that community.
Xiarhos said he wasn’t surprised the post was made on their page because there will always be a small element who are anti-police. He said the post was made in response to a post the Yarmouth Police Department made in support of the two officers who were killed in New York City last week.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people support law enforcement,” said Xiarhos. “Then there’s also a very small percentage that doesn’t either understand or doesn’t want to.”
The posts have been deleted and the man has been banned from posting on the Yarmouth Police Department Facebook page.
Yarmouth police said any threats against police officers are taken seriously.
“We take that serious. Any time of the year,” said Xiarhos. “It was a man making threats just like the man made who ended up shooting the two police officers in New York.”
