A resident who threatened to kill Holly Hill city commissioners over a proposed increase in property taxes is free on bail, according to court records reviewed on Thursday, Sept. 25.
Rodd Westpfahl, 56, of Holly Hill, charged with written threats to kill or do bodily injury, is free on $50,000 bail after spending two days behind bars.
According to Holly Hill police, Westpfahl made the threat Sept. 20 in a public Facebook group, “Holly Hill Neighborhood Crime Watch News and What’s Going On.”
Westpfahl posted an image that made reference to a Sept. 23 Holly Hill City Commission meeting where elected officials were scheduled to discuss a proposed increase in property taxes, investigators said.
Westpfahl wrote in part that if commissioners ever “jack up my property taxes like that. I will personally march down there and gun them all down.”
When police contacted Westpfahl at his Ferndale Street home about the social media threat, he said he was drunk when he made the comments, according to the arrest report.
Westpfahl further told police that he did not own guns and did not know how to use a firearm, police said. After he was arrested, he said he believed he was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech, the report detailed.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Man arrested for threatening to shoot Holly Hill city commissioners