Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Brandon Griesemer, a 19-year-old Michigan man, was identified as the person who made 22 calls to CNN and threatened to go to Atlanta headquarters and kill employees.
The FBI arrested him last week. Among his statements, according to CBS46: "I'm smarter than you. More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours."
AP said Griesemer, a part-time grocery worker, had his bail set at $10,000 and is represented by a public defender.
CNN released a statement soon after the news broke: . "We take any threats to CNN employees or workplaces around the world extremely seriously. This one is no exception. We have been in touch with local and federal law enforcement throughout and have taken all necessary measures to ensure the safety of our people."
And CNN president Jeff Zucker sent out a memo today reassuring employees that security measures have been taken:
I want to make sure you all know that we were in close contact with local and federal law enforcement from the moment the threats were made, throughout the entire investigation, and up until the suspect was arrested last week. We continue to remain in contact with them about this matter.
I know the details of this will seem frightening to some of you, and I understand. I can tell you that, at no time, as these phone calls came in did the federal law enforcement officials feel that there was an immediate threat of danger to any of our employees. With that said, we still stepped up our security procedures in Atlanta and elsewhere, as a precautionary measure.
Sadly, this is part of the reality we live in, as members of the media. I want to assure you that at every level of this company, nothing is more important than your safety. While you know we don't talk publicly about security measures, let me assure you that we have addressed this situation.
I have a regularly scheduled broadcast town hall on Thursday at 1pm ET. I've asked Jeff Gilbert, who heads up Turner Security, to join me to update all of us, with as much detail as he reasonably can, on security at CNN. Please join me then, and send me your questions in advance or during the town hall.
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