Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced today that the FBI's Portland, Oregon office raided a house belonging to the person they believe was running a website that glorified killing cops and "threatened to kill" the sheriff.
The suspect, 35-year-old Clifton Dawayne Brooks, wasn't arrested, but FBI Special Agent James Turgal said at a press conference this afternoon that the FBI served the search warrant on the house yesterday and seized some evidence.
Detectives from the MCSO had previously served a search warrant at the Google headquarters -- in Santa Clara, California -- last month after the website was discovered.
Among other things, the website had a photo of slain MCSO Deputy William Coleman with the words "officer down, LOL!!!" as well as a photo of Arpaio with the words "You're Next, Joe -- watch your back, bitch!" directly above it.
According to investigators, this wouldn't be Brooks' first foray into threatening outrageous things on the Internet.
Turgal said Brooks was convicted in 2001 of making a bomb threat in "interstate or foreign commerce" -- a federal crime.
According to the sheriff's office, FBI agents had to evacuate the house during the raid of the house Monday after finding "what appeared to be an improvised explosive device" -- which turned out to not be an "improvised explosive device."
Turgal didn't reveal what kind of things the FBI found in the house, but Arpaio said there was some weird stuff, including some "strange items pinned on the wall."
Arpaio, although he referred to himself as a "victim" a couple of times, said the threat was "something that comes with the territory."
Arpaio actually said he was happy "in one way" that the threat was made against him, since he was not the least bit pleased with a website dedicated to glorify killing cops.
The website, which was hosted by Google's blog service, has since been removed, and we'll have to wait to see how the feds end up dealing with Brooks.
