URICH, Mo. (AP) - A western Missouri man has been charged with assaulting an FBI agent who was investigating threats against Jewish sites in the Kansas City area and Washington, D.C.
Ford Kevin Coots, 25, was charged last week with one count of assaulting a federal officer. FBI agents alleged they went to Coots' home in Urich on Thursday to serve a search warrant when the assault occurred, the Kansas City Star reported.
The agents were investigating bomb and shooting threats made against the Kol Ami synagogue in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and the Beth Shalom synagogue, which are both in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas. The agents also were looking into a threat against the Ohev Shalom synagogue in Washington, D.C., they suspected came from Missouri.
An attorney for Coots isn't listed in online records.
The FBI received information in July through its online tip line from a person identifying himself as Ford Joseph Holloway and as the person responsible for the bomb threats. The person alleged he lived in Urich.
Agents traced the tip back to a business owned by Coots' mother, who confirmed Coots was her son and he sometimes goes by the name used in the tip. Coots' mother told agents her son has "mental health issues" and said she believed he was capable of making such threats.
Coots denied to agents in July he made such threats. However, call records obtained by the FBI showed two of threats came from a telephone number agents said Coots used.
Court records allege Coots struck an agent with a shovel during the search last week, knocking the agent's firearm out of his hand. Agents said Coots reached for a bottle of liquid with what they perceived as an attached fuse.
The FBI said agents subdued Coots and took him into custody.