Police and fire officials are investigating alleged bomb and death threats targeting leaders of a Maryland immigrant advocacy group who operate a day labor center that was set on fire last year.
Mario Quiroz, spokesman for CASA of Maryland, said he and the organization?s vice president, Simon Bautista, received menacing phone calls around 3:20 p.m. on May 18. A voicemail message also was left at one of the group?s offices.
Quiroz said a male voice calling from a Baltimore land line told him, “Don?t be surprised if your places are blown up,” before hanging up on him.
Minutes later, Quiroz said, Bautista received a voicemail message in which a similar-sounding male voice hurled racial insults and told him, “Don?t be surprised is there is a [expletive] bullet in the back of your [expletive] brain, for being so [expletive] stupid and helping illegals.”
Another voicemail message left at an office told leaders, “Don?t be surprised if somebody blows up your ? facility.”
“My first reaction was, it?s Sunday afternoon, it?s time with my family and this is just proof of intolerance and I should not let it affect me,” Quiroz said. The next day he reported the incident to his bosses, and they asked him to contact the police.
Police officials say they assigned an officer to the case who works with a joint terrorism task force in conjunction with the FBI.
Kenneth Korenblatt, battalion chief of Montgomery fire and explosive investigations/bomb unit, said they learned of the incidents through the media Monday and sent an official to investigate.
He said that the May 4, 2007, fire at a day labor center in Derwood has been ruled arson but not a hate crime, and that at this point it is a cold case.
“Fortunately it was not a big fire,” Korenblatt said. “It just destroyed decking and did not burn the building down.”
