A Warrior man has been charged with making threats against Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.
Brian Stephen Vest, 49, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday. He is charged with making a terrorist threat. Vest was taken into custody at his Warrior home by the Birmingham Police Department’s Crime Reduction Team.
On Friday, Vest went before Jefferson County Judge Shanta Craig Owens in a virtual hearing. The text of the 911 call was read aloud and Owens raised his bond to $100,000. Should he make bond, the judge said he will be confined to house arrest.
Authorities believe Vest is the man who called in a threat Wednesday to 911, a call that began with these words: “Hey man if you take down that statue in Linn Park… I’m going to come down there with my AK-47 and start blowing the damn pigs away, and the protesters, everybody. I’m going to assassinate n***** Randall Woodfin.”
He continued, “You think I’m playing? You’ll find out, you’ll be all over the news, punk ass. You hear me? I’m coming down there right now with my automatic weapon and I’ll blow your f****** heads off, assholes. You hear me?”
“F*** off asshole, I’ll hang you from a tree, n*****,” when the 911 operator asks what car he will be driving.
“That Mayor Randall Woodfin will be dead before light, before morning…. I’m going to start blowing peoples f****** heads off down there.”
“I got a bomb set right by that statue, it’s about to go off, you hear me? You hear me punk ass?”
“You better lay off that statue right now. You better back the f*** up, you hear me? Say something coward. I’m going to blow that damn n***** mayor’s head off, you hear me?”
“It’s none of your f****** business what my name is, asshole,” when the operator asks his name. “Go f*** yourself moron… people going to die tonight.”
“I’m going down with my AK-47.. I’m on the way right now, punk.”
“You can all kiss my ass and go to hell. Go f*** yourself, asshole.”
Woodfin on Wednesday - even before the threat for which Vest is charged - told NBC’s “Today Show” he has received death threats after he had the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument removed from the city’s Linn Park. In the interview, Al Roker asked Woodfin to elaborate on some rumors he had received death threats.
“Unfortunately, in the state of Alabama, there’s a lot of people who like to participate in revisionist history. They, believe it’s American to support the Civil War, and relate to these Confederate monuments. But they’re mad because we took the statue down and yes, there have been several threats. But our security team is not only taking it serious as it relates to me and my protection but City Hall as well as the citizens of Birmingham protection as well,” Woodfin said.
Following the threatening call to 911 – which lasted one minute and 40 seconds – City Hall was put on lockdown and Birmingham police showed up en masse. The lockdown was in effect by about 5:15 p.m. and Vest was in custody within less than two hours.
Court records do not list any previous criminal arrests for Vest.
AL.com journalist Roy Johnson contributed to this report.