Hawaii man threatened to kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, shoot up Michigan state Capitol, feds say

Julia Cardi, The Detroit News on Jun 5, 2026

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DETROIT — A man from Honolulu faces federal charges for threatening to attack the state Capitol and kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, along with "as many people as possible," officials said.

Ronald Saville was charged Monday with sending threats by interstate communication, according to Ken Sorenson, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii. The 48-year-old identified himself in an email to the Michigan State Police as originally from Michigan, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint. The affidavit said Saville is homeless and has been living on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Saville allegedly emailed the Michigan State Police on May 9, identifying himself and threatening he would "walk in with a gun at A.R. 15 and open fire and kill as many people as possible. I mean what I say I'm not a joke."

He also allegedly emailed Whitmer, saying “just to let you know on Tuesday second, Lancy, Michigan is never gonna be the same again going to walk into the state capital shoot it up and kill as many people as possible than that I’m coming for you[.]”

Suspect had history of threats against officials

He was staying in the Adventist Health Castle Behavioral Health Unit in Kailua, Hawaii, when the FBI interviewed him on May 26. Saville said he intended to scare Whitmer by sending the email and didn't actually plan to hurt her, according to the affidavit, but also said there was a "75% chance" he would have followed through on his threats had he been living in Michigan at the time.

Saville has two previous convictions for making threats against former President George W. Bush in 2006 and former U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway in 2012, a release from Sorenson's office said.

He allegedly said he also made two fake bomb threats in 2025 in Hawaii to Walmart and another business called Don Quijote.

Saville is accused of calling the FBI on May 12 and telling an agent he wanted to kill Whitmer because of her political affiliation as a Democrat, and that he had been researching online to plan a trip to Michigan to act on his threat.

"Governor Whitmer has repeatedly denounced political violence as unacceptable, and she calls on all Americans to stand up against any and all forms of it," Stacey LaRouche, a spokeswoman for Whitmer, said in an email to The News. "For too long, we’ve seen divisive rhetoric fuel political violence from threats here in Michigan to tragedies across the country."

A federal public defender for Saville could not immediately be reached.

He was arrested Monday in Abilene, Texas, authorities said. A U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson declined to explain how Saville came to be in the state or provide further details surrounding his apprehension.

Saville had an initial court appearance in the Northern District of Texas the same day, and was detained and ordered transported to Hawaii. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday.

He faces up to five years in prison for each count if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release.

Governor faced other threats

Whitmer has faced other violent threats during her two terms as Michigan's governor.

A kidnapping plot, described as the largest domestic terrorism case in a generation, led to convictions in 2022 against two men, acquittals of two others and two of the accused taking guilty pleas and flipping to testify as federal witnesses. But the case was also marked by controversy about concerns over misconduct by FBI agents and accusations of government agents orchestrating the conspiracy to entrap the accused plotters.

In 2024, Jihaad Ahmad, an inmate in Ionia's Bellamy Creek Correction Facility, was charged for allegedly threatening to bomb Whitmer's residence as retaliation for being denied parole.

In February, 40-year-old Steven Conway of Center Line was sentenced to 10 months in prison and two years of supervised release for posting on an online dating website that Whitmer was "marked for assassination" in the winter of 2025. He had also made threats against DTE shareholders. Conway's defense attorney maintained he was "a man whose mental illness turned fear, paranoia, and instability into reckless speech, not calculated violence."

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—Staff writer Max Reinhart contributed to this story.

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