SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -
Friends are standing up for a Scottsdale man who was arrested after posting an anti-Sheriff Arpaio rant on Facebook.
Monday night, sheriff's deputies come to the Scottsdale man's condo to arrest him.
We spoke a friend of Ignacio Carbajal who is furious, saying the sheriff's office overreacted to the Facebook post. She doesn't want to be identified, fearing retribution from the sheriff's office.
Here's the Facebook message posted on January 11, in part: "He should see the color of his skin and where he comes from... stupid [expletive]... let's kill him. I will kill him for free. I am going to Arizona to kill that [expletive]."
That post led to big trouble for 42-year-old Ignacio Carbajal. The sheriff's office says Carbajal admitted to posting the message on the Facebook page for "People Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio."
"The poor guy, of anyone who does not deserve that kind of treatment and overkill and arresting him," she says. "When we have so many sex offenders out there who have never been arrested and then you see what they do for a statement that's made on Facebook, yes it is overkill."
The very first comment under Carbajal's post was almost foreshadowing. It said, "Someone is going to get a visit from his local police department!""
Lisa Allen with the Sheriff's office says they take threats very seriously, whether it was on Facebook or not. They looked into Carbajal's background.
"His family lives in Mexico, he happened to be the one family member born in U.S., so you know he probably has a reason to feel that way, but you don't know go posting it on Facebook for the world to see," says Lisa Allen.
Carbajal is jailed on a $1,000 bond, charged with threatening and intimidating, a misdemeanor.
"It is a crime, it's not a high threshold crime, he's not going to spend the rest of his life on death row for it, but it's a crime and he has to go before a judge."
Allen went on to say the sheriff's office does have other things to do, but if the person receiving that kind of direct threat was not investigated, they as law enforcement would not be doing their job. They take these threats very seriously, no matter where they are posted.
Ignacio Carbajal
