Left: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump enters at a campaign event, June 18, 2024, in Racine, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, File). Right: Richard Kantwill booking photo Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
A 60-year-old dentist from Tampa, Florida, who praised “The Great Donald Trump” and sent no less than 100 violent and threatening messages to over 40 victims including a reverend, politician and others who he allegedly insulted with bigoted or racial slurs, has been arrested.
Richard Kantwill was indicted on June 11 but not arrested until June 18, a public arrest record shows.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida revealed some of the details underlying the man’s alleged threats in a memorandum seeking to detain him due to his “dangerousness” but they otherwise redacted records and opted to keep the names of his alleged victims private.
The FBI said it uncovered hundreds of threatening messages sent by Kantwill. Court records show the FBI first interviewed him in October 2019 after receiving a complaint from one of his victims. The FBI warned Kantwill his messages were being perceived as a threat but, undeterred, he allegedly “spent the next ten months sending threats to over 40 victims via social media and email.”
Investigators later said they determined that the messages had started prior to their interview with Kantwill that October. Most messages went through Facebook, Instagram or his private email account.
In one alleged threat, which appears to have been sent to a writer or journalist, Kantwill is accused of writing:
You, sir, are a degenerate piece of s—. I read your article about The Great Donald Trump. It is so blatantly prejudiced that you don’t even attempt to be impartial, you [redacted]. You are gay … I can tell. F— you. I love what Trump does and where he stays. You ignorant [redacted] never cared about the great ghetto [redacted] Obama and how he got rich but your going to get a hard-on about where Trump stays. So blatantly ignorant and liberally immoral. God Bless the Great President Trump and his family. F— you and yours. Hire extra security … you’re gonna need it, I plan on f—— you up … just for the fun of it.
The Justice Department did not confirm whether the target of the message was a writer or journalist.
To a different victim, who prosecutors say is a reverend, Kantwill allegedly vowed “torture first, then death” and added “we are going to kill you” as he called the target an “immoral degenerate.”
Prosecutors noted in their memorandum supporting the man’s detention that this victim spent close to $4,500 in home surveillance equipment out of his “genuine fear.”
A series of texts and emails that Richard Kantwill allegedly sent to multiple victims. Exhibits provided by U.S. Justice Department.
Many of the messages contained a racial component. To a victim in July 2020, when protests around the police killing of George Floyd were fresh, he texted: “Hey n—– … ever get tired of losing??? Cannot wait to shoot your ghetto a — in the street … you will die like every other n—– piece of s—.”
The dentist also allegedly boasted about his weapons, saying on Facebook that he had a collection of guns and that he would “NEVER surrender.”
Investigators said Kantwill has 15 self-reported firearms.
In one exchange with someone on Facebook whom he hoped “to buy back ‘automatic and highly illegal’ firearms from,” prosecutors say Kantwill “referenced enjoying the violence of his military service, specifically stating that he “loved creating widows and orphans.”
The FBI attempted to interview him formally in July 2021 and during that time, prosecutors allege he was defiant and refused. Instead, they say he told the agents he had done nothing illegal and then “blamed the government, minorities, and other entities for being the reason he had been speaking out.”
Court records show a text he allegedly sent the FBI after their meeting.
“So you don’t forget,” he wrote, and then inserted an emoji of a middle-finger, said he called his attorney and that his “high profile patients” would be there for their next meeting.
“So … F— YOU!!!” he added. “God bless America!!! F— Biden!!!!!”
He threatened a politician shortly after that, prosecutors claim.
Court records do not name the lawmaker or state whether they are a federal, state or local official. His message to the lawmaker was graphic, warning the politician that they would face sexual violence “that serve our cause.”
It also contained a number of racial slurs.
Prosecutors say Kantwill self-reported to pretrial services that he had received an “Other Than Honorable” discharge from the Army. Florida Department of Health Records disciplinary records uncovered by prosecutors also allegedly reveal that he broke the terms of an agreement he had to voluntarily stop practicing medicine after he “relapsed on alcohol while in the midst of an alcohol addiction.”
U.S. attorneys said Kantwill performed dentistry while he was relapsed and was reprimanded and fined. He tested positive for marijuana when screened by pretrial services as well, they said.
“While Kantwill is a dentist in the community, it seems the positions he has held have been short-term,” prosecutors wrote. “He has been with his current employer for approximately one and a half years and was with his previously employer approximately one-and-a-half years … As a dentist, Kantwill holds a position of power over any individual that sits in his chair for dental services. Based on [his] explicit and detailed threats of injury and death to politicians, celebrities, authors and others who disagreed with his political beliefs or were a different race than Kantwill, the government fears what Kantwill may do if a patient were to express contrasting beliefs or exist as a different race than Kantwill.”
He is charged with three counts of interstate transmission of a threat to injure and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
A public defender assigned to Kantwill did not immediately reply to Law&Crime’s request for comment.
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