BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Quadri Garnes earlier today on charges of transmission of threats to injure after a five-day trial before United States District Judge Nina R. Morrison. Garnes, a 48-year-old former United States Postal Service (USPS) employee, faces up to five years in prison when sentenced.
The verdict follows Garnes’s threats to harm employees of both the USPS and the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) after his application for unemployment benefits was denied. United States Attorney Breon Peace called the threats “a weapon to terrorize government employees” and emphasized that such behavior “will not be tolerated.” Daniel B. Brubaker, Inspector in Charge of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), said the case underscored the resolve of federal authorities to protect civil servants.
The trial revealed that Garnes had been employed as a mail carrier for the USPS in Brooklyn for only two months in 2022 before being terminated following a postal truck accident. On September 29, 2022, after learning he was ineligible for unemployment benefits due to his short tenure, Garnes called the DOL and issued a series of violent threats during a 45-minute recorded conversation. His statements included, “If I go back to the post office, I’m gonna shoot somebody” and “Somebody might get shot today coming out of the Department of Labor.”
The threats prompted swift action from the DOL, New York State Police, and USPIS, which implemented immediate security measures at the facilities mentioned by Garnes. Garnes was arrested two weeks later and charged under federal law.
The prosecution was led by Assistant United States Attorneys Antoinette N. Rangel and Alexander Mindlin, with support from Paralegal Specialist Rebecca Roth.
Garnes’s conviction reaffirms that threats of violence against government workers will not go unpunished, officials say.