A 26-year-old Newport man who vowed online to “shoot up a black preschool” is headed to federal prison for two years for a string of racist threats that targeted Black and Hispanic children. Prosecutors said Zachary Newell admitted posting messages that included the line “20 black babies will be shot,” and a federal judge sentenced him after his guilty plea to communicating online threats.
The case began when a tech platform flagged the violent comments, triggering a federal investigation that led agents to Newell, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal agents arrested him in Carteret County in early September 2025, with the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office assisting the probe, and a criminal complaint described multiple racist threats posted in late August 2025.
“Newell threatened to become the next school shooter, at a preschool no less,” U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said in the same press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. That statement accompanied the announcement that Newell would serve time in federal prison.
As reported by WKRC Local12, Newell pleaded guilty in November to communicating online threats that prosecutors characterized as racially motivated, and a federal judge imposed a two-year sentence. WKRC noted that a sentencing memorandum said Newell had been consuming extremist content on X and embracing conspiracy theories that fed into his online posts.
Local station WITN also covered the case, reporting that the FBI and the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office opened their investigation after a cybertip and that Newell admitted posting the threats. WITN said its March 27 story summarized both the federal material and the local law-enforcement response.
How Investigators Traced The Posts
According to WKRC Local12, Google alerted the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center after violent comments appeared on a YouTube account named “CommentatorsHateMe.” Agents used that lead to identify the account and the person behind it, carried out an arrest in Carteret County in early September 2025, and later filed the federal complaint that laid out the August posts.
Legal Note
Federal law makes interstate threats a crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 875, transmitting a threat in interstate commerce can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison. In Newell’s case, prosecutors pursued a federal charge tied to the online threats, and the judge settled on a two-year term.
Officials said the case underscores how platform tip systems can move quickly to alert law enforcement and how online radicalization can help fuel violent rhetoric that still has to be investigated. WITN reported that investigators and prosecutors urged the public to report violent or threatening posts so authorities can vet them.
