BANGOR (AP) – The Bangor chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has canceled this year’s Kwanzaa celebration after a 75-year-old man allegedly threatened to shoot chapter members.

“It has been very scary,” said chapter President Joseph Perry of Searsport.

Kendrick Sawyer was named early this month in a civil complaint filed by the hate crimes division of the state attorney general’s office.

According to court documents, Sawyer apparently made statements to his doctor at the Togus VA Medical Center that he was “going to shoot any and all black persons that he saw attending a meeting of the NAACP at a church in Bangor.” He made similar statements to a Department of Veterans Affairs police officer, who described the encounter with Sawyer as “chilling.”

Sawyer, who has no known criminal record, was quoted as saying he did not like blacks and Hispanics and that “Maine should be a ‘white’ state.” He also said he owned a .45-caliber handgun, which authorities later removed from his home.

In Kennebec County, District Attorney Evert Fowle said he and was reviewing the case with a federal prosecutor ahead of a decision on whether to pursue criminal charges, which would most likely be terrorizing.

“I want to make sure everybody is safe,” Fowle said. “Even for an older person like Mr. Sawyer, this is very unsettling.”

Kendrick is from Brewer but it’s unknown where he’s staying. The attorney general’s office said investigators know where Sawyer is living, but the office declined to specify the location.

“We’re trying to take steps to make sure that the NAACP, its members and supporters and all people of color feel safe, and our goal is to achieve that through an injunction,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas Harnett said. “Predicting future behavior is an imperfect science, but what we’re trying to do is put into place legal protections.”

One Greater Bangor NAACP member told the Bangor Daily News that the threats prompted the chapter to hold its last couple of meetings in secret.

The chapter had planned to hold its annual Kwanzaa celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bangor in a couple of weeks, but the group’s members decided Sunday to cancel the event because of the threats.

“We are very upset that we canceled Kwanzaa this year, (but) not knowing where this man is” caused great concern, Perry said. “We just didn’t want to take that chance.”

“As far as I know, he is no longer in the hospital,” Perry said.

The chapter, which has about 175 members, holds the Kwanzaa event to kick off the African-American cultural celebration that starts the day after Christmas.

During the seven days of Kwanzaa, people celebrate the seven principles of African cultures: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-11-28-07 1004EST

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