Stalked: Fox News and ABC radio host Eboni K Williams is reportedly being pursued by a 44-year-old male fan from Ohio
Fox News and ABC radio host Eboni K Williams is reportedly being pursued by a male fan from Ohio who has been sending her love notes and unsolicited gifts.
As New York Post first reported Monday, citing unnamed police sources familiar with the investigation, 44-year-old Omar Williams, from Xenia, Ohio, attended Eboni Williams’ book signing on the Upper West Side on September 12 after making his way to New York in a rented truck.
During the event at the Barnes & Noble on East 86th Street promoting her new book, Pretty Powerful, Mr Williams reportedly handed the 29-year-old Fox News legal analyst a note that read, ‘This is just the beginning of our love,’ according to the police sources.
Before accosting the TV and radio presenter in person, the Ohio man had allegedly been peppering Eboni Williams with gifts and cards by mail, and leaving what has been described as a string of bizarre comments on her Facebook page.
On August 30, police say the alleged stalker attempted to walk into Ms Williams’ office in Midtown Manhattan, but he was stopped by security and banned from the building.
Lovelorn: Police sources say Omar Williams hand-delivered a love note to the 29-year-old TV and radio presented at a Manhattan book signing in September
Signed, sealed, delivered: Williams, pictured sitting to the right of fellow Fox News host Chris Wallace, also allegedly received cards and gifts from her suspected stalker in the mail
Police and the FBI are now looking for Omar Williams, who is described as 5-foot-11 and weighing 150lbs. He reportedly has a criminal record that includes an arrest in Georgia on an aggravated assault charge.
News of the suspected stalking comes just weeks after Eboni Williams told Variety that she has been getting death threats stemming from her on-air criticism of President Donald Trump’s response to the deadly clash between white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville.
Speaking during Eboni’s Docket, her opinion slot on the now-canceled Fox News Specialists program, Williams blasted Trump’s attempt to put neo-Nazis and their opponents on the same moral plane as ‘cowardly and dangerous.’
Williams, who is registered independent and previously voted for Barack Obama, said Trump was ‘all too happy’ to receive the support of racists and encourage them with ‘evasive and irresponsible statements.’
That didn’t sit well with a chunk of her viewership; the number of emails she received after a segment swelled from the usual 10-15 to more than 150.
And only three of those were not threatening, she said.
Legal eagle: Williams, pictured center on during a Fox & Friends segment, is a legal analyst for the news network
‘I should meet my maker soon, I shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets of New York,’ Williams said, describing the tone of the emails to Variety.
‘They heard that I live in Harlem – Harlem needs to watch out.’
The threats so unnerved her book publisher that he convinced her to demand a security detail from Fox News.
On Monday, Williams weighed in on Trump’s latest tweets attacking NFL players for kneeling during the National Anthem to protest racism, saying on her 77WABC radio show that she co-hosts with Curtis Sliwa: ‘You, President Trump, or anyone else, does not get to reassign meaning to these players’ protests, not do you get to question their patriotism; you don’t get to police their protest.’