Man accused of threatening FEMA workers in western North Carolina

A North Carolina man was arrested Saturday after threatening to harm Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees who were aiding in the Hurricane Helene recovery effort, according to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office.

The office, in a Monday press release, revealed that shortly before 1 p.m. EDT on Saturday, the county’s communications center received a call saying a man “had an assault rifle and made the comment about possibly harming FEMA employees working after the disaster of Hurricane Helene in the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock area.”

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as William Jacobs Parsons, a 44-year-old resident of Bostic, N.C. He was arrested about an hour later and charged with going armed to the terror of the public, according to the press release, which noted Parsons was armed with a rifle and a handgun.

Parsons made bond and was released from the county’s detention center later that evening.

The threat against federal employees this weekend prompted FEMA to pause aid and operations at its sites around North Carolina until the threat assessments were complete.

The Washington Post on Sunday reported on an email from a federal official notifying other federal agencies that “FEMA has advised all federal responders [in] Rutherford County, N.C., to stand down and evacuate the county immediately.”

According to the Post, the initial message said National Guard troops “had come across [two] trucks of armed militia saying there were out hunting FEMA.”

The Rutherford sheriff’s department, however, said those initial reports were not correct.

“After further investigation, it was determined Parsons acted alone and there were no truck loads of militia going to Lake Lure,” the press release said.

The alleged threat follows a rise in misinformation related to FEMA’s recovery response to Hurricane Helene, which struck many Southeastern states hard and launched broad recovery efforts from FEMA.