Man arrested in alleged threat to kill congresswoman

SAN DIEGO -- A 42-year-old man left a profanity-laced death threat on the cellphone of a congresswoman from Hawaii, according to a criminal complaint unsealed here Friday.

The man, identified as Aniruddha Sherbow, then sent an email to the FBI in Hawaii vowing to find Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and “with the Divine as my witness” to “sever her head from her body,” according to the complaint.

In the email, Sherbow indicates that his anger at Gabbard dates back more than two years, the complaint indicates. His parents identified the voice on the cellphone message as belonging to their son.

Sherbow was arrested in Tijuana on Wednesday by Mexican police and turned over to the FBI in San Diego. He is in federal prison in downtown San Diego, awaiting a Sept. 9 hearing in federal court on the government’s request that he be extradited to Washington to face charges.

In 2011, Gabbard received a three-year injunction against Sherbow approaching her home or office in Hawaii, or making threatening phone calls, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Gabbard said she has never met Sherbow, but has received several dozen phone calls from him that began with an attempt to rent space in her office and then got more threatening, the newspaper reported.

There was evidence that he was at public meetings where Gabbard, then a member of the Honolulu City Council, also attended.

Gabbard, 32, was elected to Congress last year. She served with the Hawaii National Guard in Iraq. She was also an aide to recently retired U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) and co-founded Healthy Hawai’i Coalition, an environmental educational group.

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tony.perry@latimes.com