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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania State Police acknowledged “a breakdown” in alerting legislators they were targets of online threats of violence and vowed to immediately adopt a new notification process.
In a letter Wednesday to top lawmakers, Acting Commissioner George Bivens said that while his agency’s investigation and subsequent arrest of a Lebanon County man accused of making those threats was conducted properly, “a review of the matter reveals a breakdown in the notification process that should have occurred to the affected legislators.”
Several of those legislators have told Spotlight PA they did not learn that they were targets until nearly a week after 42-year-old Adam G. Berryhill was arrested and charged on May 6 with making terroristic threats that included posting a “hit list” with lawmaker names, making statements about “shooting,” and referencing a Memorial Day “operation.”
Berryhill waived his preliminary hearing, according to documents from the Lebanon County public defender’s office, after appearing before Judge Aurelis Figueroa Thursday morning in a red jumpsuit and handcuffs. His arraignment hearing is scheduled for June 11 at the Lebanon County Courthouse.
In his letter, Bivens spelled out a new process for communicating threats that includes swiftly alerting the Capitol Police — the primary law enforcement agency for the state Capitol complex — and the legislature’s sergeants-at-arms, who maintain order during voting sessions. He said State Police also plan to designate a point person for follow-up questions or concerns.
The sergeants-at-arms would then be responsible for informing specific lawmakers identified as targets.
Though acknowledging blame, Bivens noted that his agency did share information about the threatening posts with the Capitol Police, the state House’s sergeant-at-arms and the chief of staff to House Speaker Joanna McClinton. He said this happened before investigators uncovered the full list of lawmakers who had been threatened, and the people responsible for notification were not informed that the list had expanded.
Bivens did not specify what information was shared or when. But in an email late Wednesday to Spotlight PA, a spokesperson for the state agency that oversees the Capitol Police acknowledged the State Police informed the Capitol Police about their investigation into Berryhill on May 1.
The spokesperson, L. Paul Vezzetti, did not say what steps, if any, the Capitol Police took after that.
“All threats directed toward elected officials, public servants, or the Capitol Complex are taken seriously and evaluated thoroughly in coordination with our law enforcement partners,” Vezzetti wrote.
In his letter to legislative leaders, Bivens also laid out a plan to create a new “political violence threat unit,” which would exclusively investigate threats against elected officials.
The sergeant-at-arms for the House and Senate would not answer questions Wednesday about what knowledge they had of Berryhill.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, leaders on both sides of the aisle in the state House, as well as state Senate Democrats, issued statements Wednesday afternoon condemning political violence.
“The threats are a symptom of a greater sickness in our democracy,” Democratic and Republican House leaders and Senate Democrats wrote in a joint statement. “The escalation of political violence has reached an astounding level, impacting elected officials from school boards to the president of the United States.”
Senate GOP leaders issued their own, separate statement Wednesday evening, calling people to “set aside the extremism of a mindset of violence against those who serve the rule of law.”
They said that the “communication processes” between State Police and the sergeant-at-arms are “currently under review and being updated to ensure legislators are immediately contacted and made aware of any threat as we would have expected to have occurred.”
‘I don’t understand what happened’
Among the Democratic lawmakers on the alleged hit list was state Sen. Lindsey Williams (D., Allegheny), who first found out about the threat when one of her staff members told her Tuesday that she’d been named.
Williams’ mailbox in the Capitol building on Tuesday held a mailed letter from the Lebanon County magistrate, she told Spotlight PA, notifying her that she was a victim of a crime and that the arrested suspect, Berryhill, would have a preliminary hearing on May 14.
She said she never received an email, phone call or text message from any law enforcement agency about the case, so she called the Senate sergeant-at-arms, which is charged with member security. An official told her that they had not received any notice from State Police regarding the investigation, she said.
“I was kind of flabbergasted,” Williams said. “I don’t understand what happened.”
State House and Senate Democrats held a meeting Wednesday afternoon with State Police, the governor’s office and each chamber’s security detail in an effort to figure out why the agency failed to notify the lawmakers about the series of violent threats issued against them.
“Clearly PSP now acknowledge that it was a notification failure on their part,” Costa told Democratic lawmakers in a message following the meeting.
Tara Hazelwood, chief counsel for the House Democratic Caucus, sent an email to House Democrats Wednesday afternoon, writing that lawmakers’ “concerns and frustrations with the lack of timely communication to the caucus” are “valid and taken seriously.”
The alleged threats stemmed from a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter, from an account that police said belonged to Berryhill. He allegedly referenced a “Memorial Day Operation,” and posts cited by law enforcement officials named roughly 20 lawmakers on his alleged “hit list.”
But another “list” of more than three dozen lawmakers was posted by the account on April 16. That post is not included in law enforcement’s affidavit of probable cause, and multiple lawmakers listed — who were not named in Berryhill’s other alleged posts — told Spotlight PA they were concerned investigators may have overlooked it.
“No one was notified throughout the investigative process that there was a credible threat out there against them,” said one lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “What is the process for letting potentially threatened individuals know that there is a threat?”
Hazelwood told House Democrats that she shared the longer list with law enforcement, and Costa acknowledged it in his message to legislators.
Multiple law enforcement agencies operate around the Capitol Complex and regularly interact with lawmakers.
Capitol Police are charged with security at state-owned properties in Harrisburg and Scranton. Capitol Police officers, under the Department of General Services, operate separately from each legislative chamber’s sergeant-at-arms detail, which is responsible for maintaining the safety of members and their staff.
There is also a special detail of State Police assigned to protect the governor and his office, the lieutenant governor, their families and official residences.
Shapiro was himself a victim of an act of political violence last year, when a man broke into the governor’s residence in Harrisburg and set a portion of the building on fire while Shapiro, his family and other guests slept in a separate wing. The arson attack happened after Shapiro hosted a Passover Seder in the residence the evening prior.
Cody Balmer, who pleaded guilty last year to attempted murder among other charges, told investigators he would have beaten Shapiro with a hammer had he found him inside.
In his most recent budget address, Shapiro proposed sweeping changes to how security for lawmakers and the state Capitol is maintained. He’s urging lawmakers to approve $550,000 to “consolidate” all security services at the Capitol under one contract.
“It is on all of us to combat hate speech and political violence, and I call on all of my fellow Pennsylvanians and fellow leaders to stand up against this dangerous rising tide of violence we are seeing across our country,” Shapiro said in his statement.
Williams pointed out that on May 5 — one day before State Police arrested Berryhill — nearly every senator on his alleged hit list attended a public event in Philadelphia celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary.
“We were all standing in a public park with no idea about this threat,” she said.
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