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Public defender Amy Fowler, running for Salt Lake City Council, reports receiving threatening and explicit social-media messages

Fowler says no one deserves to be threatened, frightened.<br>

Salt Lake City Council District 7 candidate Amy Fowler filed a police complaint Thursday after receiving threatening and sexually explicit messages on social media.

Fowler said she received three expletive-laden messages between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Two contained explicit images and a third included a picture of someone brandishing a handgun.

She said she did not personally know the sender but that it appears to be a local man. Fowler, who is a public defender, said the person might have had contact with the Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association.

She called the incident “incredibly overwhelming and frightening.”

I don’t know the motivation,” Fowler said Thursday. “I was going to just keep this under the rug and not say anything. But then the more I thought about it the more I said we need to be talking about this. This is a violent, intimidating, harassing action and no one deserves to be put through this.”

Police had no immediate comment on the incident.

Fowler faces Abe Smith in the District 7 race Tuesday to replace outgoing Councilwoman Lisa Adams.