A Flagstaff man who allegedly e-mailed the local paper threatening a Virginia Tech-like incident during the city’s Cinco de Mayo celebration was arrested by FBI agents Friday.

James Wesley Cheek made an initial appearance in federal court on a charge related to making threats via interstate communications, said Camille Bibles, assistant U.S. attorney in Flagstaff. Cheek, whose age was unavailable, is being held pending a detention hearing set for Monday. It wasn’t known if he had a lawyer.

An editor at the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff received a comment to be posted below a story on the paper’s Web site on April 18, considered it threatening and passed it on to Editor Randy Wilson, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

Wilson contacted the FBI and turned over the e-mail, along with several others sent by a person who signed their name “dr. richard cameron.”

An FBI agent traced the Internet Protocol address of the person who posted the comment to Cheek, who was interviewed at his home, according to an FBI affidavit supporting the complaint.

KVOA