Northeast Philadelphia Man Threatens U.S. Rep’s Office Over Lost Dentures

Philly.com reports that A 44-year-old Northeast Philadelphia man who claimed to be an ex-Marine was arrested and charged by the feds yesterday with threatening to kill staff members of U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz’s office.

In a phone call Wednesday to Schwartz’s Philadelphia office on Frankford Avenue, Jesse L. Keel allegedly told a staffer who answered the phone that “he had a problem and needed help,” an affidavit released yesterday says.

“Schwartz always gets his vote but never does anything for him,” Keel allegedly told the staffer, adding that “he was not far away, was an ex-Marine, and can jump on the bus with a rifle, stand on the roof across the street from the congressional office and either shoot” the staff member “or everyone in the office.”

Keel then called back and told another staff member that he was at an Aria Health hospital in Philadelphia. The staff member previously had received information that Keel had threatened other members of Congress and had been banned from the Social Security Administration office in Philadelphia, the affidavit says.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert K. Reed asked that the staff members’ names not be published for their safety.

An FBI agent who went to interview Keel later that day at the hospital found that Keel had just been discharged. The agent said in the affidavit that hospital staff told him that Keel “was screaming and would not calm down.”

“Keel said that he was going to call his congressman and lawyer and wanted to talk with them about his lost dentures,” the affidavit says.

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