The Maryland General Assembly’s top two leaders received false bomb threats Thursday amid rising concerns over political violence.
Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) both posted on social media that they received bomb threats to their homes.
The threats fell on the same day that a midshipman was injured at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, a Navy official wrote in a statement to The Diamondback. The academy went into lockdown until about midnight after law enforcement responded to reports of threats.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s office deferred to the academy in response to a request for comment.
The threats also follow the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk while he spoke at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. As of Thursday evening, investigators have not confirmed the shooter’s identification, according to the Associated Press.
“Our administration takes threats like these seriously,” Moore wrote in an X post Thursday. “I have said it before and will say it again: Violence of any type — including rhetoric and threats — will not be tolerated.”
Jones received a bomb threat to her home in Baltimore County, she wrote in a post on X. Jones wrote that law enforcement responded quickly and determined that the bomb threat wasn’t credible.
Ferguson wrote that “everyone is safe and secure” after receiving a similar bomb threat at his home in Baltimore, he wrote on X. In his post, Ferguson decried the recent rise in political violence.
“The fear and violence of our modern political landscape is a poison whose inevitable outcome is the destruction of us all,” he wrote. “We cannot continue to live in a world where we ignore the humanity of those who have different ideologies and principles than us.”
Several historically Black colleges and universities across the country also issued lockdowns and cancelled classes after being targeted with threats on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
In Maryland, Bowie State University confirmed in a post on X that no threats were made against the university. But out of caution, the university has taken additional steps to strengthen campus security, the post read.
Moore in an X post on Thursday said that he and Maryland’s First Lady Dawn Moore are grateful for the quick response to the threats toward Ferguson and Jones’ homes.
