WASHINGTON — A 51-year-old man is facing criminal charges after he allegedly sent threatening letters to a number of schools in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Virgil McDonald, who had his name legally changed to “Yahweh,” was indicted on charges including attempting to threaten mass violence and disturb school operations.
Yahweh is a form of the Hebrew name of God and used in the Bible.
“Given the content of the letters, the letters were clearly meant to cause alarm within each of the schools,” a police detective wrote in court documents obtained by WTOP. “The suspicious letters were not simply sent to just one school, they were sent to multiple schools.”
Yahweh has a hearing scheduled Friday in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
According to prosecutors, Yahweh sent letters to three schools in Potomac including the McLean School of Maryland, Winston Churchill High School and Potomac Elementary School.
The schools all received the letters March 7 and immediately called police.
Churchill and Potomac are public schools while McLean is private.
“Due to the contents of the letters sent to each of the three schools and the recent school shooting in Florida, each of the three schools viewed these letters as a direct threat to the school population,” the police detective wrote.
According to investigators, the letters included references to school shootings and the terror group ISIS and contained ramblings about politics, race and religion.
The letter sent to Churchill High had a handwritten message on it, referencing infamous school shootings.
It stated “Sandy Hook, Parkland, Columbine Etc. All dead white devils, Dead!”
Another message on a letter, sent to the McLean School of Maryland, stated that “5 million AR-15s are pointed @ your school!”
It was not difficult for police to track Yahweh down.
According to investigators, Yahweh used the U.S. Postal Service to mail the letters, listing his name and his Temple Hills address on the envelopes.
Police said Yahweh admitted to sending the letters to the schools and also said he mailed similar letters to other people throughout Montgomery County.
