Craig Jungwirth. Photo via Broward County Sheriff's Office
Jeff Black says he and other LGBTQ activists in south Florida have been complaining to police officials for six months about relentless harassment endured at the hands of a local event promoter named Craig Jungwirth. Now that man is under criminal investigation for allegedly threatening to commit a massacre somehow even more horrible than the Orlando Pulse nightclub mass shooting that stunned America in June.
"He has posted thousands and thousands of comments threatening me, my family, and my partner," Black told VICE. "He has been invasive in every level of my life. But even though we have some very credible evidence of his threats, the police just pushed us away."
It wasn't until Jungwirth recently went on a foul-mouthed Facebook rant promising to wipe out Wilton Manors, an affluent suburban city with a prominent gay population, that law enforcement agencies took notice, Black said.
"None of you deserve to live," Jungwirth appears to have written in one post. "If you losers thought the Pulse nightclub shooting was bad, wait till you see what I'm planning for Labor Day."
Another post is said to have proclaimed, "I'm gonna be killing you fags faster than cops kill niggers. It's time to clean up Wilton Manors from all you AIDS infested losers."
Jungwith's Facebook has since been deleted by the company, according to a local NBC affiliate. But given less than three months have passed since Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and injured 53 more in the Pulse attack, residents and business owners in the area's LGBTQ community are experiencing a new kind of terror.
"The posts he made about coming to do an Orlando-type attack has struck a fear in the community like nothing I have ever seen," Fort Lauderdale–based attorney and South Florida Gay News founder Norman Kent told VICE. "Every nightclub in town is increasing its security this weekend."
Wilton Manors Police spokeswoman Jennifer Bickhardt confirmed the department is part of a local, state, and federal investigation into Jungwirth's alleged threats and that he has been questioned by law enforcement personnel, but he has not been arrested. "We firmly believe these are threatening statements," Bickhardt told VICE. "We do take it seriously. That is why there is an ongoing investigation."
In another press statement issued Wednesday evening, Wilton Manors police chief Paul O'Connell assured the public his department was being vigilant. "WMPD will have increased patrol and visibility throughout the holiday weekend, working with local bars and restaurants in an effort to beef up private security," he said. "In addition, we have reached out to our local law enforcement partners and asked that they consider providing additional assistance."
Efforts by VICE to reach Jungwirth directly were unsuccessful. According to court records, he was evicted from his last known address in Wilton Manors in March. Black and Kent believe the man is living in with his mother in her home in Orlando. Messages left on her phone number and another number associated with Jungwirth were not returned.
Meanwhile, Black and Kent maintain that local police failed to follow up on previous complaints they made about Jungwirth, a 50-year-old North Dakota native who came under intense scrutiny by the South Florida Gay News and other gay news sites shortly after he signed an agreement this winter to purchase the rights to Bear Beach Weekend, an annual gathering of gay men with events in Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale.
For instance, the South Florida Gay News broke the story about Jungwirth's past criminal conduct in January, a piece that includes four separate allegations in Broward County of stalking with violence between 2013 and 2014. In one case, Jungwirth allegedly showed up at the Fort Lauderale Boat Show in November 2014 to harass a former employer three years after she had fired him and had obtained a restraining order against him that had expired. She claimed he was making comments about her and her father to other vendors and creeping around her booth.
" behavior causes victim to be in fear for her safety," the arrest report states. "She feels harassed and afraid to maintain her normal routine."
Kent told me that a few weeks ago he called local cops after Jungwirth showed up at the Gay News Fort Lauderdale office and cornered his front desk receptionist. "I think he could have been charged with false imprisonment if the police wanted to get creative," Kent said. "Tragically, law enforcement is only starting to respond to a series of ongoing criminal acts by this person. It took this latest incident for anyone to pay attention.
Bickhardt, the Wilton Manors PD spokesperson, said she could not comment on past complaints because she did not know the specifics surrounding those incidents. However, she said police need to establish probable cause to make an arrest. For example, she said, detectives need to show that Jungwirth was actually the person who typed and posted the comments on Facebook. A spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale police did not immediately return a request for comment.
Black, a 53-year-old graphic design company owner, believes he incurred Jungwirth's wrath because he helped expose a scheme of bogus vacation and event packages by contacting gay media outlets and government officials about false advertising on the Beach Bear Weekend website. As a result of that activism, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitor's Bureau canceled a meeting with Jungwirth and pulled a listing for Beach Bear Weekend off its website, Black told me.
In July, Black filed for a restraining order and reported Jungwirth to the Wilton Manors Police Department because of harassment via Facebook, text messages, and phone calls that would not stop, he said. "He uses a plethora of fake profiles," Black added. "He's even made one using my image and my name and harassed me with it.
Over the last week, Jungwirth's attacks on Facebook have increased in severity, according to Black. "He started using the word 'nigger' about 48 hours before he made the domestic terrorist type threats," Black said. "There are about 30 to 40 people who are in the same boat. I just happen to be in his top five."
The fact Jungwirth is not in jail bothers him a lot, Black continued. "It still unnerving to know he is still at-large," he opined. "He has the potential to show up at a bar in Wilton Manors and hurt people."
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