Grand Jury Indicts Machinist On 16 Counts, Including Identity Theft

Authorities are moving quickly to prosecute a former Boeing employee accused of making bomb threats against his managers, and top executives with the company.

The Associated Press reports Gino Augustus Turrella, 46, faces a 16-count grand jury indictment for various incidents. On May 2 and 4, Turrella allegedly sent emails to a Boeing server, threatening to shoot up or bomb the Boeing facility in Auburn, WA where he worked for 18 years.

"I'm going for maximum death and destruction in the work place!" Turrella allegedly wrote, according to the federal complaint filed by Special Agent Chad Piontek. Several emails were addressed to higher-ups at the planemaker, including Commercial Airplanes CEO Scott Carson and Pat Shanahan, program manager on the 787 Dreamliner.

Agents say Turcella tried to cover his tracks, placing blame on his former manager identified in court documents only as "J.O." Turrella allegedly sent the threatening messages from that manager's address, and signed his name.

When investigators looked into the threats, they uncovered a spate of similar missives against a Shell Oil refinery in Anacortes, sent later in May. Officials linked those messages to Turcella... and the picture became even clearer, when they discovered he had a prior record.

In fact, the FBI says Turrella first came to the agency's attention in the 1990s, when he made threats over his ham radio... including threats to mow people down with an AK-47 assault rifle. The Federal Communications Commission fined Turrella $10,000 for jamming legitimate transmissions, and for being a general nuisance.

He never paid the fine... but he did threaten to bomb the FCC office in Kirkland, according to the indictment. Although several witnesses made statements about Turrella and fingerprint evidence linking him to the threats, Turrella received deferred prosecution.

In 1997, the US attorney's office in Seattle sent Turrella's lawyer a stern letter asking that Turrella stop interfering with communications on a Coast Guard emergency distress channel.

Despite that close call, Turrella apparently continued his pattern of disturbing behavior... and authorities seemed to still turn a blind eye. The US Attorney's office
sent Turrella's lawyer a 'stern letter,' in the AP's words, in 1997 -- telling Turrella to stop making transmissions on a US Coast Guard emergency frequency.

Turrella reportedly continued to make threats on the channel until 2000. He was fired from Boeing in August 2005, after he allegedly sent a co-worker three live AK-47 cartridges via interoffice mail. He had worked as a flexible line worker for Boeing's parts plant in Auburn since 1987.

Upon his termination, the FBI conducted a behavorial analysis of Turrella, and determined he posed a "low-to-moderate" risk of returning to attack Boeing workers. Turrella "possessed many of the characteristics deemed to be risk factors for future acts of targeted violence," the FBI added.

Agents arrested Turrella August 26 in the parking lot of an outdoor gear store. He was charged Thursday... and was due to make his first appearance in US District Court last Friday. When agents searched his home, they found over 100 guns.

Turrella reportedly has no criminal convictions.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.fbi.gov