Illinois man charged with threats against Lt. Gov. Flanagan after Annunciation church shooting

An Illinois man has been charged with threatening violence against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a social media post following the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church.

The felony charge of threats of violence was filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court against Caden J. Sluder, 22, of Oglesby, Ill. He was charged via warrant and was not appearing in jail logs in Lasalle County in Illinois or in Ramsey County on Thursday.

The comments were made as a reply to Flanagan’s posts on X offering condolences to the victims of the church shooting and thanking law enforcement for responding. The comments were made by the X user “lfoke75949,” whose account was suspended Thursday.

“You should be genuinely shot and killed,” the first comment read, according to the criminal complaint.

“You should be strung up by the neck,” Sluder allegedly wrote in response to another Flanagan tweet that thanked first responders.

That reply included a hashtag with a condensed version of “End Peggy Flanagan’s Life”

The posts come amid heightened concerns of safety for elected officials in Minnesota. In mid-June, state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, was assassinated in her home along with her husband, Mark. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot and seriously wounded. Federal prosecutors indicted Vance Boelter on six counts in July including stalking Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman, killing the Hortmans and attempting to kill the Hoffmans. Boelter pleaded not guilty.

The BCA staff used an IP address to identify the suspect as Sluder, according to the complaint.

A Minnesota Star Tribune reporter’s calls to a number listed for Sluder did not go through on Thursday. In a call to a number associated with Sluder’s parent, a woman declined to comment. No attorney information is listed as of Thursday afternoon.

In a call with a state trooper on Aug. 27, Sluder allegedly said the posts were a joke, said he was expressing his freedom of speech, and that he had no intention of acting on the threatening posts. The complaint alleges that Sluder apologized several times on the call and said he lives far away.

Sluder allegedly said he was upset that Christians were killed and that Flanagan previously wore a “trans shirt” in public.

In spring of 2023, Flanagan wore a shirt that read “Protect Trans Kids” and included an image of a knife and a rose. She wore it on the day Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care. Pictures of the shirt were posted by numerous commenters criticizing Flanagan on X.

The topic of gender identity has been brought up by Republicans and Democrats following the shooting. After the shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke out against using the shooting to villainize anyone, including the transgender community. He said in a Facebook post that “we should be operating from a place of love for our kids.”

“Those using this tragedy as an opportunity to villainize the trans community, or any community, have lost sight of our shared humanity,“ the mayor said in the post. ”Children died today. We shouldn’t be operating out of a place of hate for anyone.“

Last week, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., called for the state to repeal its transgender refuge law.

“We got to respect everyone,” Emmer told the New York Post. “We got to have compassion for everyone. But we got to understand that we’ve got some serious mental health issues that are being exacerbated by these types of messages by people like [Gov. Tim Walz] and everybody who supported that law.”