Mayor Bloomberg targeted with ricin-laden letters threat

An anonymous person sent letters containing the poison ricin to Mayor Michael Bloomberg to send an apparent message against his stance on gun control, the NYPD revealed Wednesday. 

Police say one letter, which was discovered Friday, made threats against the mayor, who co-chairs the Mayor's Against Illegal Guns coalition, and referenced the recent gun debates. A similar ricin-laden letter was opened bythe director of coalition in Washington, D.C. Sunday. The letters tested positive for ricin by National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland.

Workers who touched contaminated letters at the city's mail facility on Gold Street were asymptomatic, however, cops who were part of the Emergency Service Unit that handled the letter suffered minor symptoms related to the poison.

The mayor never handled the letters, police said, and Bloomberg said he isn't scared.

“The letter obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts, but there's 12,000 people who are going to get killed this year with guns and 19,000 who are going to commit suicide with guns,” Bloomberg said at a Manhattan synagogue.

“And we're not going to walk away from those efforts. And I know I speak for all of the close to 1,000 mayors in the mayors' coalition against guns. This is a scourge in the country.”

Civilians who touched the letter in Washington also appeared to be fine.

Officials said the investigation is ongoing.

This story has been updated since its original publication.