GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A 75-year-old Florida man has been charged with a hate crime after allegedly threatening to lynch the president of a local NAACP.
Ronald Wadford was arrested Thursday on two counts of aggravated stalking as a hate crime. Gainesville Police say he threatened to hang Evelyn Foxx who is the president of the Alachua County NAACP chapter.
Police say Wadford called Foxx six times in November 2016, saying he was with the Ku Klux Klan and was going to her house to lynch her.
The Ocala Star-Banner reports she left the state to stay with family for weeks and eventually the country because she was afraid to go home.
She went to Wadford’s first appearance in court Friday and says she’d like to ask him why and also tell him she loves him even though she said she could see bigotry in his eyes.
