A woman in the Miami area has been charged in federal court with threats to kill Vice President Kamala Harris in a series of videos she sent to her husband in prison.
Niviane Petit Phelps, 39, sent five 30-second videos and two photos to her husband in February through a service known as ‘JPay’, which is used to share media between inmates and non-inmates, according to a complaint of the secret service. .
“The videos generally show Phelps talking angrily to the camera about her hatred of, among others, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris,” authorities said. “In the videos, however, Phelps also made statements about the assassination of Vice President Harris.”
In one February 13 video, Phelps said Harris was “going to die” after “someone paid me $ 53,000 just to help me,” according to the complaint. In another Feb. 14 statement, Phelps claims she will go to a gun lane “until you leave the seat,” officials said. And in a Feb. 18 video, she said Harris would die within 50 days, according to the complaint.
Authorities said in a Feb. 20 photo, Phelps was seen smiling on a shooting range while holding a handgun next to a target with bullet holes. Two days later, she reportedly applied for a hidden gun permit. A second photo sent to Phelps’ husband depicted a “young man, who was later determined to be a son of Phelps, with a gun and a target,” authorities said. .
Phelps claimed during an interview with investigators that she believes Harris’ is not actually ‘black’, according to the complaint. Harris is the first black American, the first South Asian American and the first woman to be elected vice president in American history. Phelps is also black.
Phelps later told investigators she was angry with Harris as vice president at the time, but was “now about it” according to the complaint. She was arrested after the investigation.
Phelps, a longtime nurse at Jackson Memorial Medical Center, was “suspended without pay while we process her termination of employment,” her employer said in a statement, NBC Miami reported.
She has been working at the hospital since 2001, and has ‘spent the past few years as a licensed practical nurse’ at the Ambulatory Care Center West in the facility.
Heroia Petit, Phelps’ mother, told NBC Miami that her daughter was “sick” and “she does not even know what she is doing”. She hopes the charges can be dropped.
“Do not punish her … because she listened to what people were saying to her,” Petit said. “She is desperate. She has nothing to do. Her husband has been in prison for ten years, two children. The house, she lost everything. ‘
According to Phelps, Phelps is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
