{"id":401955,"date":"2026-09-16T23:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401955\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:16:15","slug":"rhode-island-man-accused-of-threatening-east-providence-mayor-arrested-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401955\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhode Island man accused of threatening East Providence mayor arrested in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) \u2014 A Rhode Island man accused of sending threatening messages to East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva is facing two charges following his arrest in Florida last month, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Thomas Wazlavek, 41, is charged with threatening a public official and cyberstalking and cyberharassment. The charges stem from messages allegedly sent to DaSilva\u2019s mayoral Facebook page beginning Aug. 8.<\/p>\n

Police said the messages included threats to kill DaSilva, harm his family and set fire to his home. One message allegedly threatened to put the mayor \u201cfeet first into the woodchipper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"East<\/p>\n

East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva. (WJAR)<\/p>\n

The account used the name \u201cAaron Waz,\u201d according to police. DaSilva reportedly recognized the account as belonging to Wazlavek based on their previous interactions involving the Teamsters union and local politics.<\/p>\n

Rhode Island man accused of threatening East Providence mayor arrested in Florida<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Police said the profile featured an image of a masked man alongside a message addressed to the mayor. Investigators also obtained images sent from the account, including a Teamsters Local 251 membership card bearing Wazlavek\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

As part of their investigation, authorities sought subscriber information and IP address records from Facebook to identify the person behind the account.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement and security expert Todd McGhee said digital records can help investigators connect an online account to the device used to operate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think of the IP address almost as good as a fingerprint,\u201d McGhee said. \u201cThe IP address is going to be able to connect the dots where things may be vague or fraudulent on the front end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wazlavek was arrested in Florida on Aug. 17, according to police. At his initial court appearance, he refused to waive extradition to Rhode Island, prompting authorities to request a governor\u2019s warrant.<\/p>\n

His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) \u2014 A Rhode Island man accused of sending threatening messages to East Providence Mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-401955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}