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A North Carolina man was arrested on Saturday and accused of threatening federal emergency responders who have been administering aid since Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the state last month.
The man, William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic, N.C., was charged under a law that makes it illegal to carry a weapon in a way that threatens the public. He was arrested at a supermarket where a Federal Emergency Management Agency bus was parked, according to Capt. Jamie Keever, a spokesman for the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Parsons had a handgun and a rifle in his possession.
No FEMA personnel were at the site, he said.
The Rutherford County Communications Center received a call on Saturday afternoon that a man armed with an assault rifle had made a comment about harming FEMA workers in the area, according to a statement released by the sheriff’s office.
The man was overheard voicing threats at a gas station in neighboring Polk County, and either a station clerk or a customer alerted U.S. Army soldiers nearby, Captain Keever said. The Army informed the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies visited the gas station and obtained a description of the man’s vehicle. That information led them to Mr. Parsons at the supermarket.
The arrest occurred after FEMA, which is administering aid to severely flooded counties in the region, directed its employees to stop going door to door to help survivors amid various threats of violence. FEMA workers were still working from designated locations, however.
Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm, unleashed heavy rains across the Southeast, killing at least 230 people and leaving entire communities cut off. Since then, officials in devastated areas, including Rutherford County, have had to contend with a barrage of online conspiracy theories and falsehoods, including unfounded rumors that FEMA planned to bulldoze neighborhoods to make way for mining operations.
Mr. Parsons was charged in Rutherford County on Saturday and was released after making a $10,000 bond, according to the statement provided by the sheriff’s office.
He acted alone, the statement said, adding that rumors of “truck loads of militia” in the area were false. Federal officials confirmed that this was their understanding as well.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.
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