A U.S. citizen living in Thailand was arrested Thursday after he allegedly threatened to kill Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), former Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and their staffs over a slew of unsolicited political emails. According to court documents, Eric Charles Welton, 51, allegedly spoke with a staffer at Tillis and Burr’s Raleigh offices in Sept. 2021, and threatened to cut the hands off of the person that sent him the spam emails and “put a bullet through each of [their] heads.” Welton is also accused of threatening U.S. Marines—in 2022, he allegedly said he was “going to kill a bunch of Marines” in Thailand due to anger over an immigration issue. Welton was arrested at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and is charged with one count of threatening a federal official. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
