Threat targeting Tampa journalist leads to arrest
February 26, 2020 - A 20-year-old Spring Hill, Florida man identified as Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe was one of four people arrested in what the U.S. Department of Justice said was a conspiracy to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists. The defendants conspired via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate, focusing primarily on those who are Jewish or journalists of color, a press release from DOJ said. Two of the defendants created posters which included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening language, and the coconspirators printed and delivered or mailed the posters to journalists or activists the group was targeting, according to the release. In Tampa, the group targeted a news reporter who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but Parker-Dipeppe delivered the poster to the wrong address, the criminal complaint said. The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Seattle, Tampa, Houston and Phoenix.