A woman has died after police in Georgia received an email from a Russian IP address claiming the sender left a pipe bomb in Marjorie Taylor Greene's mailbox.
A police officer who responded to the scene hit another car and killed the driver, the Republican congressman confirmed on X.
“My heart is hurting right now,” Greene wrote.
The assistant police chief of the Rome Police Department received an email on Monday with the subject line “For Palestine,” stating that the sender had made a pipe bomb using “a 1×8 inch threaded galvanized pipe, end caps, a kitchen timer, some wires, metal clips and homemade black powder.”
“It will go off this weekend, but it would also go off the next time someone opens the mailbox,” according to the strangely specific threat, which Greene shared in a press release. “Even if Marjorie doesn't open the mailbox herself, I'm still content with the prospect of a few pig cops losing their lives or getting hurt. VIVA VIVA PALESTINE [SIC].”
A bomb squad responded quickly and confirmed the mailbox was empty. It was at least the ninth time Greene has been “beaten,” in which false emergency calls are made to provoke a large police response, the congressman said.
The congresswoman shared a short video of the bomb squad checking her mailbox. /Screenshot/Marjorie Taylor Greene
But the situation turned deadly when one of the officers responding to the threat had an accident on the way to Greene's home, local TV news station WRGA and Atlanta News First reported.
A Rome police officer with the Floyd County Bomb Squad driving a personal truck, a GMC Sierra, struck a Mazda Protégé as it drove away from a private property, according to reports. The driver of the Mazda, 66-year-old Tammie Pickelsimer of Rome, was taken to the hospital and later died from her injuries. The officer, whose identity is not yet known, was not injured.
“These violent political threats have fatal consequences,” Greene wrote on X. “It is an unnecessary burden on our law enforcement officers, who must treat them seriously.”
Greene said her prayers go out to Pickelsimer's family and the officer involved, and that her office is working with local and federal law enforcement agencies — including the FBI — to catch whoever sent the bomb threat.
A spokeswoman for the Rome Police Department confirmed that the FBI took over the case after local police determined there was no threat at Greene's home.
Greene “personally contacted our Assistant Chief Rodney Bailey overnight and expressed her devastation and condolences over the incident,” Public Information Specialist Kelly Madden told The Daily Beast.
The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the fatal crash, she added.
