A Poplar Bluff man sits in the Mississippi County jail after he allegedly made online threats against Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs.
Keegan L. Browning, 22, of Poplar Bluff was taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree felony harassment at his residence without incident after an investigation linked him to the threats.
According to a press release from the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, Dobbs received several threatening messages to his Facebook messenger on Oct. 16 from an anonymous Facebook profile. In the messages, the person stated he knew what Dobbs looked like, knew his family and it would be a shame if something happened to them.
The person sending the messages further stated, “I know where you live, where you sleep where are you feel safe, you better watch your (expletive) back.”
A search warrant was granted for Facebook records, which yielded the name of the person associated with the profile, their email address, phone number and the identifiers of the phone in which the message came from.
When the investigation linked Browning to the threats, Butler County Sheriff’s deputies, along with Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators, took Browning into custody. He later was transfered to Mississippi County.
When questioned, Browning allegedly admitted to sending the threats after becoming angered by local anti-law enforcement rhetoric he had been looking at on Facebook just prior to sending the messages.
Official charges are still pending.