A man from Honolulu faces federal charges for threatening to attack the state Capitol and kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, along with “as many people as possible,” officials said.
Ronald Saville was charged Monday with sending threats by interstate communication, according to Ken Sorenson, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii. The 48-year-old identified himself in an email to the Michigan State Police as originally from Michigan, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint. The affidavit said Saville is homeless and has been living on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Saville allegedly emailed the Michigan State Police on May 9, identifying himself and threatening he would “walk in with a gun at A.R. 15 and open fire and kill as many people as possible. I mean what I say I’m not a joke.”
He also allegedly emailed Whitmer, saying “just to let you know on Tuesday second, Lancy, Michigan is never gonna be the same again going to walk into the state capital shoot it up and kill as many people as possible than that I’m coming for you[.]”
He was staying in the Adventist Health Castle Behavioral Health Unit in Kailua, Hawaii, when the FBI interview him on May 26. Saville said he intended to scare Whitmer by sending the email and didn’t actually plan to hurt her, according to the affidavit, but also said there was a “75% chance” he would have followed through on his threats had he been living in Michigan at the time.
Saville has two previous convictions for making threats against former President George W. Bush in 2006 and former U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway in 2012, a release from Sorenson’s office said.
He allegedly said he also made two fake bomb threats in 2025 in Hawaii to Walmart and another business called Don Quijote.
Saville is accused of calling the FBI on May 12 and telling an agent he wanted to kill Whitmer because of her political affiliation as a Democrat, and that he had been researching online to plan a trip to Michigan to act on his threat.
Representatives with Whitmer’s office were not immediately available for comment on Friday. A federal public defender for Saville also could not immediately be reached.
He was arrested Monday in Abilene, Texas, authorities said, though the complaint and affidavit did not specify how Saville came to be in the state.
Saville had an initial court appearance in the Northern District of Texas the same day, and was detained and ordered transported to Hawaii.
He faces up to five years in prison for each count if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release.
jcardi@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Feds: Hawaii man threatened to kill Whitmer, shoot up state Capitol
Reporting by Julia Cardi, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Julia Cardi, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
