Detectives in the Maricopa Sheriff’s Office began working together with the Canadian police regarding this latest threat to kill Arpaio in late July of 2013 when Arpaio’s office received a threatening email.
The email read, “Joe Arpaio, you are a massive dickhead and I hate you so much you dick sucking shitface. I’m going to murder you and your whole family including your wife, children and grandchildren. I’m also going to bomb your house and afterwards burn down the remains. May your death be horrible.”
The two-month long investigation led police to the teenage suspect who, when questioned by Canadian authorities, admitted to making the threat.
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Detective Brian Mackiewicz, who has investigated dozens of threats against the Sheriff, surmises that the political atmosphere surrounding Sheriff Arpaio is what may be behind the recent increase in the volume of threats.
Just in the last few months, three other suspects in three separate cases have been arrested for threats made against Arpaio; two in Arizona, and one in California. All three of those suspects mentioned Arpaio’s stance on illegal immigration as a motivating factor for their threats against his life.
In the past, a previous threat to kill Sheriff Arpaio led investigators from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office again to Canada – this time a 37-year-old suspect, Matthew Carl Sanderson, was arrested by Toronto Police. Sheriff Arpaio traveled to Canada and testified in court during the prosecution of that case. Sanderson was convicted.
Like the juvenile suspect now facing charges, Sanderson made his death threat against Sheriff Arpaio through electronic communication directed to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
Sanderson’s threat said he would kill Arpaio with “a bullet in the head or heart, poison him, blow up his car or burn him alive” sometime within the following two years, at the behest of a group who was offering to pay Sanderson $250,000 for Arpaio’s murder.
In the current case, Sheriff Arpaio has agreed to travel to Canada to testify, if authorities there request it.