Suburban Man Charged with Posting Facebook Threats to Kill Cops

A south suburban man was charged Saturday with posting Facebook threats to kill police officers, which set off alarms in the law enforcement community following the cold-blooded murders of two New York City cops, a police source told the Chicago Sun-Times Saturday.

Aries Woodfin, 33, was arrested late Friday and police searched a home where he lived in Ford Heights. Officers found a .45-caliber pistol in the home and a makeshift gun range in the basement with dozens of spent bullet casings of various calibers strewn on the floor, the source said.

Woodfin, a convicted felon, was charged in Cook County Criminal Court with illegal gun possession, a felony, along with misdemeanor charges of assault, failure to have a valid firearm owner’s identification card and disorderly conduct.

He was ordered held without bond Saturday, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office website.

Woodfin allegedly posted recent messages on Facebook threatening to kill police officers and “innocent white children,” the source said. He allegedly posted photos of white children on his Facebook account along with the threats.

A woman who saw the threats contacted Alabama police officials, who then contacted the Chicago Police Department whose Bureau of Organized Crime launched an investigation.

When he was arrested, Woodfin allegedly told officers he was a “warrior” and the “streets would run red with blood,” the source said.

Woodfin was previously convicted in 2000 of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon — illegal gun possession — and was sentenced to probation. He resided in Ford Heights and in Chicago, the source said.

Woodfin’s alleged Facebook postings drew keen interest from law enforcement agencies because of the murders of New York Police Officers Ralph Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Dec. 20. They were shot to death without warning while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn.

Before those murders, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, posted online comments about the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers. He pointed to the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York City. Brinsley killed himself in a subway station after he shot the officers.