A Brooklyn man, Quadri Garnes, has been convicted by a federal jury for threatening to shoot and kill employees of the New York State Department of Labor (DOL), according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Garnes is now facing up to five years in prison following the conviction which was delivered after a five-day trial presided over by United States District Judge Nina R. Morrison.
United States Attorney Breon Peace stated, "The defendant used threats of violence as a weapon to terrorize government employees because he couldn’t get what he wanted and today, the jury’s verdict spoke loudly that such conduct will not be tolerated." Garnes's employment history with the United States Postal Service (USPS) was a central part of the case, where he had a short stint lasting from March 26, 2022, up to May 29, 2022, an which ended following an accident where Garnes crashed his postal truck into two vehicles and he was terminated; when he applied for unemployment benefits he was denied due to his having worked less than the required 60 days which made him ineligible for the said benefits. On September 29, 2022, after being informed of his ineligibility Garnes unleashed a series of threats during a 45-minute recorded call with two DOL employees.
During the call, Garnes's threats included chilling statements:
- "If I go back to the post office, I’m gonna shoot somebody."
- "Y’all gonna make me go to jail for killing somebody."
- "Do the city want me to kill five or six different people?"
- "I got 18 and a half years in jail. It don’t bother me to be in jail. I made myself, meaning like I’m made, as long as I’m in the New York City jail, I’m good."
- "You might see this s--t on TV. Just remember my name. You might see it on TV tonight. You, just remember my name!"
- "Somebody might get shot today coming out of Department of Labor."
- "Believe me, I’ll be at the New York State Department of Labor down on Schermerhorn or Livingston Street and I will make a big f----ng deal out of it."
Following Garnes’s threats, the DOL and other authorities including the New York State Police and Postal Inspectors took immediate action by implementing safeguards at the post office where he worked and the DOL office he threatened, Inspector in Charge Daniel B. Brubaker of the USPIS New York Division emphasized that today's guilty verdict should serve as a signal to anyone who makes threats of violence against federal employees or attempts to impede or obstruct the services they provide, these actions will not be tolerated on any level. Garnes was apprehended about two weeks following his threatening call.
The prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Antoinette N. Rangel and Alexander Mindlin, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Rebecca Roth. As Garnes awaits sentencing, the message from the federal jury's verdict is clear: there are consequences for issuing threats against civil servants, and such actions will not escape judicial scrutiny and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
