The Santa Cruz City Council listens to hours of citizen comments as they consider Resolution 29, which would call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
SANTA CRUZ — The teenager identified as allegedly having made threats against Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley’s life personally apologized this week.
The apology, delivered Thursday in person via a letter written on behalf of the teen and his family, came after Keeley discovered a threatening message on his work voicemail a day earlier. The message, laced with expletives, referred to a council-majority vote to pass a watered-down resolution calling for peace in the Middle East. The council heard some 10 hours of public testimony, lasting from Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning, on a resolution authored by Councilmembers Sonja Brunner and Sandy Brown that called for the stronger language of a cease-fire in the latest Israel-Hamas war.
The teenager regretted his actions, according to the text of the letter, provided to the Sentinel.
“He got caught up in the moment after watching a Santa Cruz meeting online and was confused with what he saw and thought that making this call would change the conflict overseas without thinking about the pain this would cause to you, your staff and family,” the letter reads in part.
“He now understands that threat violence or threat thereof is not the answer to solutions,” the letter continues.
The Santa Cruz Police Department intends to submit the teenager’s threat case to the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office for potential prosecution “once all the reports are written, approved, and processed through our records division,” according to Chief Bernie Escalante. Officers detained the teen, a Watsonville-area resident, while he was allegedly headed to Wednesday night’s Watsonville City Council meeting, Keeley told the Sentinel.
The teenager and his father sat with Keeley at his office for a half-hour conversation that involved “sharing our thoughts on this and other matters of public policy,” according to a press release from Keeley’s office.
“The outcome was a better understanding of our points of view,” Keeley wrote. “We also pledged to each other that we would keep open lines of communication for any future complex and vexing issues.”
Keeley added that he recommended similar conversations between those with strongly held views who “want to manifest peace and reconciliation in the face of turmoil.”
