Grand jury indicts Alaska illustrator on threat charges

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A grand jury has indicted an Alaska children’s book illustrator on charges of terroristic threatening after authorities said he posted around the capital city transphobic notes that referenced shooting children.

Thursday’s indictment against Mitchell Thomas Watley, 47, was announced by the state Department of Law on Friday. Watley is scheduled for arraignment in state court on April 25. A phone message seeking comment was left for Watley’s attorney.

Watley is accused of leaving business card-size notes at a grocery store, state office building and a Costco store with an image of an assault rifle, the colors of the transgender flag and the text “Feeling Cute Might Shoot Some Children,” according to the complaint filed in the case.

He was arrested April 2, after several notes were found at a Costco and officers reviewed security footage that showed a man, later identified as Watley, leaving a note in the store, the complaint alleged.

Terms of his release on bond approved by a judge earlier this month include electronic monitoring, being restricted from parks and schools and not having access to firearms and other weapons.