(Tupelo, MS) The FBI believes the man responsible for three bank robberies and the shooting death of a Tupelo police officer is dead.
Agents say cell phone records tie a man shot and killed Saturday in Tucson, AZ to the incidents.
Phoenix police identified the man as 40-year-old Mario Edward Garnett.
Garnett was shot and killed after robbing a bank in Phoenix, Arizona Saturday and shooting at police.
Police believe Garnett is linked to an attempted bank robbery in Atlanta last Monday.
According to Federal Court Documents, Garnett, who is from Oklahoma City, had been in prison for threatening the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Israel.
According to court records from Oklahoma City, Mario Edward Garnett posted a message on the official White House website in 2010 threatening to “blow [the president’s] brains out on national TV” if he ordered a strike on Iran.
The email also read: “You scheming hypocrite. You don’t mean anything to me. Youre (sic) just one dirt bag out of a handful plotting evil behind closed doors. Ive (sic) got plans for some of you, here shortly.”
The email also threatened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and threatened to “settle some scores on behalf of Israel and America’s victims and on behalf of those they continue to oppress. I’ll kill president and farmer alike. Damn Israel. GOD Commands perfect Justice.”
A nationwide manhunt was underway following Monday’s shooting death of Sergeant Gale Stauffer in Tupelo.
Officer Joshua Maher was critically injured in the attack and is recovering.
Investigators had offered a reward of more than $200,000 for information in the case.
At a Sunday news conference, Beth Stauffer said, “We can truly begin the healing process, and that could not have happened without the hard work of so very many.”
FBI Special Agent McMullen stated, “Since the beginning of this investigation, the FBI, in collaboration with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners across the United States, conducted dozens of interviews, collected and reviewed surveillance video from numerous cooperative businesses, and examined evidence from the crime scenes in Atlanta, Tupelo, and Phoenix. This team of investigators, analysts, and law enforcement personnel has been tireless in its efforts thus far, and remains committed to bringing this case to its final conclusion, and bringing a measure of peace to the family of Officer Kevin “Gale” Stauffer, Officer Joseph Edward Maher, the Tupelo Police Department, and the Tupelo community.”