Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) in a file photo from 2023. The two lawmakers were the targets of bomb threats at their homes Thursday. (Photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maryland Matters)
Maryland legislative leaders were targeted at their homes by bomb threats Thursday, and the U.S. Naval Academy was briefly on lockdown, as tension lingered after the assassination Wednesday of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
Both House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) reported receiving bomb threats that were directed at their homes, not their state offices. The threats were deemed credible, officials said, but police ultimately did not find an actual threat.
The only injury reported was at the Naval Academy, where officials said a lockdown was imposed “out of an abundance of caution” after a nonfatal, accidental shooting of a midshipman on campus, which followed threats that had been received at the academy earlier in the day. The campus was put on lockdown shortly before 6 p.m. and remained so into the evening, No other injuries were reported.
Maryland was not alone. Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia were on lockdown Thursday after officials at those campuses received what one called “terroristic threats.”
Democratic legislative leaders in Rhode Island and New Mexico were also the targets of bomb threats, as was the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, which was closed by a bomb threat Thursday, according to news reports.
None of the threats were linked directly to the killing of Kirk, who was gunned down during a public appearance before several thousand people Wednesday at Utah Valley University. But in most cases, authorities said the decided to be on the safe side, given the mood of the nation.
Ferguson said that after the killing of Kirk, and the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker in June and attempted killing of another, “it is clear that tragic political violence is on the rise.”
“Earlier today, the Baltimore Police Department received a bomb threat involving our family home. Thankfully, everyone is safe and secure,” said Ferguson, who went on to praise Baltimore City and Maryland State Police in a social media post.
That was echoed by Jones, who said authorities responded quickly to “a bomb threat at my home in Baltimore County … and determined that it was a non-credible bomb threat.”
“While such threats are violating, we can’t let them distract from the important work we do,” she said on social media. “Tonight, I will take time to care for my family and team and look forward to getting back to work tomorrow.”
As they did after the killing of Kirk, state leaders from both sides of the aisle reacted to the threats against Jones and Ferguson with denunciations of political violence and calls for civility in public life.
House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Allegany) said on a Facebook post that Jones and Ferguson are “decent, respectful and when they can, consistent with their political beliefs, helpful and accommodating to me and my constituents.” He noted that Jones’ son died unexpectedly earlier this year and that Ferguson has a family with young children
“Calling in bomb threats to their residences or threatening them with violence of any form is despicable and does nothing to advance the conservative cause or better our nation’s future,” he wrote, adding that whoever made the threats should be “investigated, charged and punished significantly.”
Although he disagrees “strenuously” with much of what Democrats advance in Annapolis, Buckel said he would defend them “from violent and unhinged people on either side of the political divide who think that threats and violence are acceptable. Enough.”
Gov. Wes Moore (D) said on social media that his administration “takes threats like these seriously. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Violence of any type — including rhetoric and threats — will not be tolerated.”
Ferguson said the current violent political climate is “a poison whose inevitable outcome is the destruction of us all.”
“Somehow and someway, the current momentum of our political culture must move away from dehumanizing our ideological opponents and towards a recognition of our shared experiences in this world together,” he wrote. “We can and must be better than this.”