Maryland man indicted for sending threatening letters to schools referencing mass tragedies and ISIS

POTOMAC, Md. - A Maryland man, who legally changed his name to the Hebrew name for God, was indicted on charges for allegedly sending threatening letters to some area schools, mentioning several mass tragedies and ISIS.

Court documents reveal the man, 51-year-old "Yahweh" with no last name, sent letters to two Montgomery County Public Schools -- Winston Churchill High School and Potomac Elementary School, and a private school, the McLean School of Maryland.

Investigators say "Yahweh," who was formerly Virgil Lee McDonald, sent envelopes to the schools in March, containing several papers that had "ramblings" about politics, race and religion. His Temple Hills address was listed on the envelopes as the return address.

The envelopes included a picture of several black men that the sender claimed to have killed and included what appears to be a copy of a hand-written letter from ISIS, instructing the sender to "kill them," according to officials.

Court documents say the letters make direct references to past school shootings and in the letter sent to the McLean School, "5 million AR-15s are pointed @ your school!"

Police say "Yahweh" spoke with investigators and admitted he sent letters and also admitted he sent multiple similar letter throughout the country.

Montgomery County Public School parents learned about the threats in a letter sent home this week.

"Unfortunately, in the wake of Parkland we are seeing a rise in threats to school and most of them aren't credible but we have to take each and every one seriously," said Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Derek Turner.

Montgomery County schools say they let parents know as quickly as possible.

"We immediately contacted police, they came to the school... and assessed the situation. They said 'you don't have to go into emergency procedures that are going to disrupt instruction' and we are asking you not to speak about this right now so we can pursue the investigation. And they did and were able to reach an indictment," said Turner.

"We wanted to make sure we had all the information set and ready before we decided to share information that might prejudice the case."

"Yahweh" was arrested on March 16 and charged with three counts of disturbing the operations of a school and held without bail. He was then indicted on April 19 with an added charge of attempted threat of mass violence.