Nashville Man Pleads Guilty To Threatening Cops On The Internet

NASHVILLE, TN — A Nashville man faces up to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty Monday to posting threatening photos about law enforcement online.

Robert Ellis Waddey, 22, posted a photograph on Instagram showing a pistol pointed at a Tennessee Highway Patrol car, captioned, “F--- them non attentive hoes,” along with a comment reading, “Gona die lookin at his computer.” (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

That photo aroused the attention of Metro Police. A search of Waddey's phone following that threat revealed other disturbing pictures. One showed a uniformed police officer bleeding heavily from the head and captioned “only a dead cop is a good cop.” Another photograph showed an officer who appears to have been shot multiple times in the back and laying in the street and yet another photograph is a screen shot of a video showing another officer shot and laying on the ground bleeding. This photo is captioned, “ON TAPE: OFFICER SHOT IN THE HEAD D….”.

During his plea hearing, Waddey admitted that on September 13, 2015, while sitting in his car at a traffic light in South Nashville, he took a photograph of a Glock pistol in his hand, positioned in such a way where the pistol would be viewed in the same frame as a police car on a traffic stop in the distance with the blue lights activated. Waddey posted with the photograph a slang threat to law enforcement. Various text messages sent by Waddey also conveyed threats toward law enforcement.

He admitted during the plea hearing that his intent was to threaten law enforcement.

Waddey will forfeit 13 handguns, four assault rifles and a shotgun and faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced October 16.

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