New Jersey Man Arrested for Death Threats Against Sheriff Mike Chitwood

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A man in Monmouth, New Jersey was arrested last week for having made threats to kill Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood online, the Sheriff himself announced at a Tuesday press conference. The suspect, 38 year-old Richard Golden, supposedly made the threats in response to comments made by Chitwood condemning recent anti-Semitic activity in the area. The comments were posted to the online forum 4chan, and read as follows: “Just shoot Chitwood in the head and he stops being a problem. They have to find a new guy to be the new problem. But shooting Chitwood in the head solves an immediate problem permanently. Just shoot Chitwood in the head and murder him.” These remarks proved enough to get Golden charged with written threats to kill, a third degree felony. He’s being held in New Jersey until extradition to Volusia County can be arranged. Chitwood stated that Golden has no history either living in or visiting Volusia, but that he’d heard about Chitwood through the anti-Semitic group Goyim Defense League. Other details about Golden painted him as a marginalized member of society: he told police he has no job and lives with his mother. He has no criminal history prior to this charge, though Chitwood stopped just short of speculating to that end. Along with Golden’s mugshot and arrest footage, the press conference also displayed Chitwood’s new line of t-shirts: a caricature of himself dunking neo-Nazis and anti-Semites into a toilet. He said proceeds would go toward anti-hate education to prevent radicalization and extremism at the root. As well as naming and shaming Golden, Chitwood also brought up three teenagers who were recently disciplined for vandalizing a Volusia County high school with swastikas in a restroom. The school cannot be named to protect the identity of the students, but Chitwood said he’d be asking the judge to mandate a trip to a Holocaust museum as part of the kids’ punishment.