Crime & Safety

Police: Facebook Threats Target Rep. Nita Lowey, Gov. Cuomo

A police and FBI investigation leads to an arrest on weapons, terroristic threats charges.

A Rockland County man who posted numerous threats against public officials including U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a Facebook page has been charged with making terroristic threats and illegal weapons possession, Clarkstown police said today.

Lawrence Mulqueen, 49, of Nanuet, was arrested after an investigation by Clarkstown Police and the FBI that began with a complaint from his landlord. Sgt. Glen Cummings said the landlord, a 63-year-old woman, complained on Wednesday that Mulqueen had engaged in harassing behavior toward her.

The landlord, Cummings said, alerted police that she also believed Mulqueen had a pattern of threatening behavior that included violent anti-government posts on a Facebook page that he maintained under a pseudonym - Lawrence Henry - and that Mulqueen was illegally in possession of weapons.

Find out what's happening in Ossining-Croton-On-Hudsonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Cummings said an investigation revealed that the publicly accessible Facebook page maintained by Mulqueen did contain numerous threats against government officials and law enforcement. Cummings said the Facebook page had posts that Mulqueen was anxious to start killing various public officials including Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, Lowey, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi,  U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The Facebook page, according to police, also stated Mulqueen wanted all followers of President Barack Obama dead, referring to them as "traitor scum," and declaring "death to them all." 

Find out what's happening in Ossining-Croton-On-Hudsonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With the discovery of the threats, Clarkstown Police alerted the FBI, which assisted the town with an investigation of Mulqueen. The probe led investigators to obtain a search warrant and Mulqueen's home was raided.

Mulqueen was taken into a custody and Cummings said the raid on the home found body armor, weapons and ammunition including:

1 10.62x54 Bolt Action Rifle

1 Remington 35 Pump Action Rifle loaded with 6 rounds

1 Bulletproof Body Armor

Approximately 100 rounds of Ammunition, including 27 rounds of .50 caliber armor piercing bullets (tank buster)

2 Rifle bayonets

1 Rifle Scope

1 Sword

1 Metal Knuckle Knife

No one was injured in connection with Mulqueen's arrest and the raid on his home. Clarkstown police were familiar with Mulqueen because of numerous landlord-tenant disputes that he had been involved with over the past year. Police said that previous criminal convictions made it illegal for Mulqueen to own firearms.

In addition to comments about public officials, a post on the "Lawrence Henry" Facebook page targets Mulqueen's landlord: "harass her at will friends."

The discovery and the Facebook investigation led to Mulqueen being charged with third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, making terroristic threats and harassment. He was arrested and arraigned in Clarkstown Town Court, where Judge Scott Ugell ordered Mulqueen held in the Rockland County Correctional Facility in New City without bail pending a hearing on Monday.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.