PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island State Police are investigating what appear to be social media threats made against Providence police officers.
The posts shared the addresses of at least three officers and one contained an explicit threat, state police Col. James Manni said.
“We take this very seriously and it is very concerning when anyone is harassed or threatened,” Manni told WPRI-TV. “It is especially concerning when a police officer is threatened online.”
State police are involved because the officers named in the posts live outside of the city, Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said.
“The state police are aware of it, we’re monitoring it, and we’ll investigate whether there’s any criminal offense,” he told The Providence Journal.
An officer under investigation for his role in a moped crash on Oct. 18 that left 24-year-old Jhamal Gonsalves in a coma was named in one post, police said.
Providence police union President Mike Imondi said in a statement that the posts are “obviously intended as a direct threat to our safety.”
“This will not deter our police officers in the work we do, and we will continue to uphold and enforce the local, state and constitutional laws we swore an oath to,” he said.
