Two letters with identical Louisiana postmarks directed at Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I-NYC, were officially declared by authorities to be laced with the castor-based poison ricin.
One ricin-laced letter was sent to New York City Hall and the other to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which Bloomberg founded. Neither letter reached the mayor's desk, however some of the folks that came in contact with the ricin poison developed symptoms of exposure that eventually went away.
Three people from the New York Police Department's Emergency Services Unit developed diarrhea and other "minor" symptoms, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
HOT NEWS NOW:
LINCOLN CHAFEE SWITCHES PARTIES...AGAIN
MARGARITAVILLE = MOST LUCRATIVE SONG EVER
QUEENS HOME EXPLODES
Bloomberg remained defiant in his fight for gun control despite the ricin letter incident and numerous more civil outpourings of protest to the gun control agenda: "The letter[s] obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts, but there are 12,000 people who are going to get killed this year with guns, and 19,000 are going to commit suicide with guns...This is a scourge in the country," Hizzoner proclaimed.
The typewritten letters, sent from Shreveport, La., read in part: "You're not going to take my guns. You'll have to kill me before you take my guns. If you take my guns, you should see what I'm going to do to you," according to law enforcement sources.
Mark Glaze, the director of Bloomberg's gun control organization in Washington, reportedly opened the other letter on Sunday.
The letters were passed along to Federal authorities, who reportedly began the process of asserting whether the mailings would officially be deemed 'bioterrorism'. The National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Frederick, Md. later tested the substance in the letters and officially diagnosed it as ricin poison.
Additionally, Mayor Cedric B. Glover, D-Shreveport said in a statement that his office was working with the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force in their search for a suspect in the case.
"No, I don't feel threatened," Bloomberg said of the ricin incident, "This was not the first letter that was sent to anybody...There are people that do things that might appear irrational...an you just have to deal with that."
The billionaire is indeed not the first to receive such letters, as President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. also received letters laced with the possibly-fatal ricin poison.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
