Feds Stop Man Who Wanted to "Shoot Up" and "Skin" Twenty Black Pre-Schoolers | Crime Alert 4PM 09.05.25

A YouTube comment threatening to “shoot up” and “skin” Black preschoolers leads to federal charges against a North Carolina man. For the next six weeks, the FBI is on a sweeping campaign to arrest violent criminals, target child predators, and fight crime on Tribal lands. Drew Nelson reports. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert hourly update, Breaking crime news Now. I'm Drew Nelson.
A YouTube comment threatening to shoot up and skin black
preschoolers leads to federal charges against a North Carolina man.
Zachary Charles Newell, h twenty five, of Newport, is in
custody after the FBI and Carteret County deputies trace the
online posts to him. Prosecutors say Newell used the screen

(00:24):
name commentators hate Me, posting racist threats under a YouTube
video on August twenty seventh. In one message, he wrote
about murdering twenty black children, quote like the animals they are.
The next day, he posted another threat filled with racial slurs.
Google flagged the comments and reported them to the FBI's
National Threat Operations Center. FBI Director Cash Pttel told our

(00:46):
partners at Fox News Digital quote, threats of violence against
children are beyond unacceptable acts of cowardice. The FBI worked
quickly with our partners in Carteret County to ensure this
individual was taken into custody before he could act in
Torett County.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
These situations are always once the information comes into our office,
we always immediately begin conducting investigations and charging these individuals
where appropriate.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's Sheriff Ason Newell on WCTI. Court records showed deputies
went to Newell's home on August thirty. First, they confronted
him about the YouTube threats, and he admitted making the posts,
but he served a search warrant and he was first
charged in state court with communicating a threat of mass
violence on educational property. A magistrate set bond at thirty
thousand dollars, which he posted That same night. Deputies worked

(01:35):
with the FBI to take him into federal custody on
an interstate threat charge. FBI North Carolina Special Agent in
Charge James C. Barnacle told Fox News Digital, quote, your
FBI will work with local, state, and federal law enforcement
partners to investigate threats directed at schools. This federal charge
should be a warning to anyone who believes they can
sit anonymously behind a keyboard and make violent threats. Officials

(01:59):
stressed that Newell did not name a specific preschool and
said there is no active threat to schools in Carteret County.
But Sheriff Buck tells the TV station, this isn't your
typical school threat.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
I asked. Most of the time they've been communicated by
juveniles and either as a student or a former student
of a particular school.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
More Crime and Justice news after this. For the next
six weeks, the FBI is on a sweeping campaign to
arrest violent criminals, target child predators, and fight crime on
tribal lands. The agency said it would carry out a

(02:40):
wave of arrests and public operations through October. FBI Director
Cash Pattel said, quote, when I became FBI Director, I
made a promise to the American people to crush violent crime.
Your FBI will identify the criminals who paralyze communities with
fear and bring them to justice. The plan includes a
national push to arrest people accused of exploitating children and

(03:00):
producing child sexual abuse material. A tandem effort is focusing
on transnational criminal groups tied to drug trafficking, money laundering,
human trafficking, weapons smuggling, homicide, extortion, kidnapping, and alien smuggling.
The FBI said it had completed a month's long operation
across all fifty five field offices targeting suspects wanted for

(03:21):
violent crimes. Agents have now begun what the bureau calls
its quote longest and most intense national deployment to date,
focusing on crimes in Indian country, including missing and murdered
indigenous people. The Bureau said they're doing this in close
partnership with local, state, and federal law enforcement. Maria Isabelle
Elizalde was fifteen years old when she disappeared November twenty fifth,

(03:44):
twenty fifteen, from East Dallas, Texas. Her family was cooking Thanksgiving.
Maria and her sisters asked to go outside and play.
They were seen together just before nine pm by their stepfather.
Minutes later, their mother called them inside. Only the younger
two girls came back. Maria was gone. She had no coat,
no money, and no embrollert was issued as it did
not appear she was abducted. Maria was Hispanic. She had

(04:07):
brown hair dyed blue at the ends, hazel eyes, and
a scar through her right eyebrow. She was five feet
tall and weighed one hundred and forty pounds. That night,
she was wearing blue jeans, a blue sweater, and high heels.
Her mom, Kathleen, had only gotten her daughter back a
year earlier. Maria's father's parents took her as a baby
to Mexico. She stayed there most of her life. She

(04:29):
wasn't allowed to see her mother. She finally returned to
Dallas after she was allegedly sexually abused by a relative.
Maria had run away once before, but came back after
a few hours. Kathleen said her daughter was naive and
too trusting. Quote, it's been a nightmare. It's been a nightmare,
That's what she told our TV news partners at Foxford Dallas.
In twenty twenty one, Maria's age progressed photo was shown

(04:52):
more than twelve hundred times a day on fifteen digital
billboards across North Texas. The effort was led by the
Texas Center for the Missing Clear Channel Outdoor. It helped
bring two other missing teams home. Maria may still be
in Dallas or nearby cities like Cedar Hill or Balt Springs.
Anyone with information should call the Dallas Police Department at
two one four seven four four forty four forty four.

(05:16):
For the latest crime and justice news, follow crime alert
hourly update on your favorite podcast app with this crime alert.
I'm Drew Nelson.