Maryland's New 'Emmett Till Alert System' Issues First Alert at 'Severe' Level

Maryland's new Emmett Till Alert System issues its first alert at 'severe' level https://t.co/Jh98MyCaDZ

— WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore (@wbaltv11) October 17, 2022

Maryland's new Emmett Till Alert System released a "severe" warning Sunday night that involves threats of possible violence against Black child care centers.

Providing more information at a news conference Monday afternoon, African American leaders sounded an alarm intended to heighten awareness and increase vigilance in Maryland and across the country.

Maryland's Emmett Till Alert System went live in August and was activated for the first time at 6 p.m. Sunday.

"Sounding the alarm against domestic threats is very important to me," said Antonio Palmer, owner of Kingdom Kare.

The Caucus of African American Leaders puts out the alerts, which are similar to Amber Alerts, but are focused on hate crimes and other incidents targeting minorities.

"When we receive potential threats against our community, our churches, our child care centers, we must take it seriously," Palmer said.

This first alert was the highest possible warning that Black day care centers are being targeted for possible acts of violence by hate groups online. Leaders said the threat was identified and vetted by the system's own panel of intelligence experts.

"The reason this one came out ... 'severe' -- the highest we can -- (is) because it involves, potentially, people's lives, and so we wanted to make sure that people take it seriously," said Carl Snowden, with the Caucus of African American Leaders. "If by putting out this alert we save one life, it's worth it."

"Make no mistake about this. This is based on a credible, credible threat," said Robert Johnson, with the Caucus of African American Leaders.

A representative of Baltimore's FBI field office told 11 News in a statement: "We are taking these threats seriously, and we have reached out to other law enforcement partners to ascertain if they have any further information or awareness."

A representative of the Anne Arundel County Police Department told 11 News in a statement: "We have no specific threats at this time, and we're looking into it."

"We cannot allow these threats to go unaddressed," Palmer said. "I'm calling on our local, state and federal government officials and agencies to respond to and address these recent threats."