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FBI: Letter To Orlando Police Threatened "Bloodbath In The Streets"

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 – updated: 8:47 am EDT May 1, 2008

Channel 9 found out death threats made against Orlando police officers may have come from inside the department. Two weeks ago the department received a letter threatening to ambush Orlando police officers in a sniper-style shooting.

Sources tell Eyewitness News that as many as ten officers are under investigation Thursday morning and they have refused to be questioned without an attorney present. Several of the officers are on units that have just been disbanded as part of a controversial OPD reorganization.


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A video showing Officer Fernando Trinidad pushing Jessica Aspirilla down the stairs at an Orlando nightclub angered the author of a letter threatening to kill Orlando police officers. New details were uncovered about what exactly was in the note.

The note described a shooting similar to the sniper attacks several years ago in the Washington D.C. area. FBI agents interviewed Jessica Aspirilla about the letter and she agreed to take a lie detector test.

"I can't make sense of what happened at all. I just know that it's very scary and that I had nothing to do with it," Asprilla said.

The FBI said they now believe the letter came from inside the Orlando Police Department. The author of the letter demanded that Officer Trinidad be criminally charged or else there would be a "bloodbath on the streets."

Trinidad was officially suspended for eight hours after the incident. There were also threats made directly toward OPD Chief Val Demmings and other officers.

The threatening letter did not go straight to Orlando police. It was first sent to the Seminole County Clerk of Courts. When someone there opened the letter they forwarded it immediately to officials in Orlando.

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