‘Hostile situation.’ Eastern Kentucky man charged with threatening FBI special agent.
An Eastern Kentucky man has been charged with making a threat against an FBI agent.
The incident happened at the home of Randy Copley, a special agent with the FBI.
Copley saw Gabriel Howell, 45, drive by his house on March 30 and later found his mailbox had been heavily damaged, according to a sworn statement from Dillon Blair, a London police officer assigned to an FBI task force.
There was a large, heavy pipe sticking out of the mailbox and a note that read, “You’ve got mail, Guess who. It’s not a game. It’s people’s life’s,” according to the affidavit.
The note was written on a receipt.
Copley suspected Howell was involved because he’d seen him drive by.
He talked to Howell’s employer, who said the handwriting on the note was Howell’s and the receipt was for a purchase by his business, according to the affidavit.
State court records list Howell’s address as Harold, a community in Floyd County.
On April 8 at 2:27 a.m., Howell rang the bell on the gate at Copley’s driveway, according to the affidavit.
Copley called Kentucky State Police and met Howell at the gate.
Because of the odd hour and prior contact with Howell, Copley used his firearm “as a show of force to assist him in deescalating the hostile situation,” according to the affidavit.
State police officers arrived and arrested Howell on an outstanding warrant from another case, and also charged him with trespassing.
A state police officer said in the citation that Copley said Howell was “talking out of his head” and talking about Copley placing chips in Howell’s head to track him.
Howell had gone to Copley’s house several months earlier and said he wanted to report a crime, according to the affidavit.
Copley was on vacation at the time and gave Howell a number to call the FBI.
Howell thanked him and left, but after police arrested him this week, he told Blair he felt Copley “blew him off” and was angry because no one was helping him with the information he had about crimes.
Howell said he had damaged Copley’s mailbox to send him a message and went to his house this week “to get what he wanted,” Blair said.
Blair swore out a criminal complaint charging Howell with influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal official by threat.
In July 2023, an officer with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office arrested Howell on a charge of terroristic threatening after responding to a report of a fight at his house.
Howell got irritated while speaking with the officer and threatened two other men there with a metal pipe, according to a citation.
