Cedar Rapids police have seized several guns from a man who they say sent threatening letters to the city’s mayor. Police Lieutenant Chuck Mincks says 62-year-old Charles Thurston Junior is undergoing a mental evaluation and has not been charged.

Minks says Thurston is a cab driver who ran as a candidate for the city council in the past and wasn’t elected, and over the past two to three weeks sent a series of four letters to the mayor’s office voicing his political opinion on a number of issues. Minks says the letters got more emphatic and the final letter expressed language that "somewhat threatening in nature."

The excerpts released indicate he talked about conspiracy by police, said his persecution would "come to a violent death" and alleged that officials were interfering with his internet connection and had cost him 800-million dollars. When investigators went out to speak with him, the lieutenant says "they felt there might possibly be something more to the issue than just criminal harassment, and so they referred him for a possible medical evaluation."

Minks says it is not a political issue. Lieutenant Minka says while he was "attempting to exert a political opinion," the overall issue is public safety as his letters, from a private citizen to the mayor, indicated a "somewhat threatening manner." While several weapons were seized, Minks says Thurston never threatened in his letters to use them.