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‘It’s horrible’: Rome police chief talks about threat at Rep. Greene’s home that led to deadly wreck

Rome police chief talks about threat at Rep. Greene’s home that led to deadly wreck Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home has gotten so many swatting calls and bomb threat hoaxes over the last few years, that Rome police have established a protocol on how to handle them. (PHOTOS: Marjorie Taylor Greene / Getty Images)

ROME, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News is learning more about a bomb threat hoax at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home that led to a fatal car accident.

The woman collided with an off-duty officer’s truck.

Greene’s home has gotten so many swatting calls and bomb threat hoaxes over the last few years, that Rome police have established a protocol on how to handle them.

But Monday’s email threat resulted in the death of that woman.

Video released by Greene’s office showed the Rome-Floyd County bomb squad responding to the threat to her house.

An email, apparently sent from a Russian server though not necessarily from inside Russia, warned of a pipe bomb in her mailbox.

It was just a hoax. But what wasn’t a hoax was the response.

Rome police say one of their off-duty bomb squad members got the alert and was driving his own pickup truck to headquarters when he collided with a car driven by 66-year-old Tammie Pickelsimer along Redmond Circle.

Pickelsimer died from her injuries. The officer was injured too.

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Channel 2’s Richard Elliot spoke with Rome Police Chief Denise Downer-McKinney on Tuesday.

“I think it’s horrible,” Downer-McKinney said.

She said the Georgia State Patrol is investigating how the crash happened, but either way, she blames whoever emailed that hoax -- something that is now a felony in the state of Georgia.

“It may be funny to them, but as you said, it’s not funny. And if it hurts or injures someone very seriously that even causes more distraught for the family of the officers involved and for our community,” Downer-McKinney said.

Pickelsimer’s family wanted to wait until the Georgia State Patrol wraps its investigation to talk, but in a statement, they said Tammie “wanted to help any and everyone she could.”

“If you took the time to talk with her for a few minutes, you were her newest friend. She loved animals, especially dogs because they were just like her, unconditional love and oh so forgiving of others,” the statement said.

Greene’s office didn’t respond to Elliot’s emails, but she did release a statement on social media saying this incident made her sick to her stomach and angry and should never have happened.

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