For the third consecutive day, an unknown person Wednesday broadcast racist and obscene messages over a public-safety radio channel in Pittsburgh with seeming impunity.
The foul comments follow earlier transmissions of antisemitic language and a death threat against the city’s mayor.
“The mayor of Pittsburgh will be killed soon,” an unidentified user repeatedly said on Monday.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials remained tight-lipped Wednesday about the investigation, declining to reveal what they know about the origin of the broadcasts or how they are being sent over airwaves.
Officials earlier this week said the transmissions are not a result of the public safety system being hacked. The broadcasts can be heard by anyone with a police scanner.
The messages are not being broadcast with county-owned or county-maintained radio units, Allegheny County Police spokesman Jim Madalinsky told TribLive Wednesday.
A Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said the bureau’s radio units also do not appear to be involved in the incidents.
In the latest round of utterances, a man who did not identify himself started cursing and using racist language Wednesday on a Pittsburgh-area public-safety channel around 8:50 a.m.
He made a second round of statements moments later. Each tirade lasted about 30 seconds.
Two days earlier, an unknown user made antisemitic remarks, according to a TribLive review of archived broadcasts.
“We are out to liquidate Communist traitors,” the user said Monday. “What we are is Nazis, which means basically that we are racists. We believe in preserving a white nation, a white Christian nation.”
In another comment Monday, a user said if he were religious, “I would say Hitler was the second coming of Christ.”
Authorities have declined to say whether they believe the system is being hijacked by one or more people.
The Federal Communications Commission, which is involved in the investigation, has not responded to multiple requests for comment this week.
Statements made on air at various times on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were carried over radio systems that allow county and Pittsburgh public safety personnel to communicate.
Pittsburgh and the county maintain dozens of public-safety channels but have declined to say which channels have been hijacked by the unauthorized user or users.
Madalinsky, the county police spokesman, said Wednesday he did not know how many portable radios and car radios the county police operate — or how many are reported lost, missing or stolen. He said the county has a system for keeping track of their radio equipment but declined further comment.
“We’re not going to get too far into that,” he said.
Kasey Reigner, a county emergency services spokeswoman, declined to explain how the county determined a county radio was not involved in the broadcasts, saying, “that is an internal vetting process that we do not share with the public for security reasons.”
Cara Cruz, a Pittsburgh public safety spokeswoman, did not respond when asked Tuesday about the bureau’s protocols for tracking their radios.
Abigail Gardner, an Allegheny County spokeswoman, did not respond Wednesday to phone calls and emails seeking comment.
“This is an ongoing investigation — we have no additional information to share,” Reigner told a TribLive reporter Wednesday via text message. “Should there be an update, we will put out a press release.”
The county said it learned of Monday’s broadcast around 2 p.m. that day. The second round of messages was transmitted Tuesday morning around 10 a.m., county officials said. The messages occurred on the same radio channel that was impacted Monday.
Wednesday’s messages began shortly before 9 a.m., radio recordings available online show.
The messages affected only one channel in the countywide system, officials said. Public safety officials who typically use that channel temporarily moved to a secure channel, county officials said.
An FBI spokesman has said agents in the Pittsburgh office are aware of the incident but not involved in the investigation.