Shelton, CT - A 23-year-old Connecticut man was arrested for making threats to kill a Florida Sheriff on the social media site 4Chan.
On Wednesday, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office announced that Cristhian Zapata was arrested for making online threats to kill the county's Sheriff, Mike Chitwood.
According to police, Zapata made a post on the online message board on April 7th that read "I WILL KILL CHITWOOD, MARK MY WORDS."
According to the sheriff's office, the post was flagged by the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange for further investigation.
Detectives traced the post back to Zapata's sister's apartment in Connecticut, where Zapata had been living.
Detectives interviewed Zapata's sister, who told law enforcement that her brother was always on his computer and often participated in "extremist" chat rooms, talking to people about conspiracy theories and white supremacist ideology.
She added that Zapata identified himself as white or German to involve himself in white supremacist chat rooms, despite being of Hispanic origin.
During the investigation, Zapata was contacted by law enforcement and admitted to making the threat.
Zapata also indicated that he was aware of others posting threats to kill Chitwood, but was surprised they were arrested, as he believed such speech was protected by the First Amendment.
After further investigation, Zapata was arrested by the Shelton Police Department on a charge of making a written threat to kill.
Wednesday's incident marks the third arrest of a 4Chan user accused of threatening to kill Chitwood.
Last month, a man from New Jersey and a man from California were both arrested on similar charges.