Suspicious letters delivered to City Hall

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Two more suspicious letters were sent to City Hall on Friday morning, a day after a letter containing what turned out to be sugar was sent to a city councilman’s home.

When the two letters arrived, workers didn’t open them and called police.

“We received some mail (Friday morning) that bore resemblance to the correspondence that was identified during (Thursday’s) incident.  As a result of that, we isolated it immediately and called police and fire units to come and recover it and include it as part of the ongoing criminal investigation,“ City Manager Richard Brown told NBC 10.

Brown said one letter was addressed to him, the other to Councilwoman Valerie Perry. On Thursday, Councilman Brian Coogan received the letter containing sugar.

A hazardous materials team came to pick up the letters, but City Hall was not evacuated.

Brown said he thinks that all of the councilors have gotten a letter, believed to be from the same sender. The letters that were delivered to City Hall were a bit different than the one set to Coogan.

“We had no reason to believe there was any substance included in it. But I believe that the contents (of the letter) would have been similar and that is a constituent who is expressing his feelings of local government,“ Brown said.

The letters follow a heated City Council meeting last week in which Coogan voted against two budget proposals that included tax increases.