FBI Director Kash Patel said his agents thwarted a potential tragedy after arresting a North Carolina man who allegedly threatened online to massacre dozens of Black children at a preschool.

Zachary Charles Newell, 25, of Newport, was arrested Monday and is charged with interstate threat to kidnap or injure, according to a criminal complaint filed Sept. 2 in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

“Threats of violence against children are beyond unacceptable acts of cowardice,” Patel wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The FBI worked quickly with our partners in Carteret County to ensure this individual was taken into custody before he could act. Parents should know we will never hesitate to respond with urgency to protect their kids, their schools, and their communities.”

Zachary Newell, 25, is facing federal charges in connection with violent threats posted on YouTube. (Carteret County Sheriff’s Office)

“Your FBI will work with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to investigate threats directed at schools,” Barnacle wrote in a statement. “This federal charge should be a warning to anyone who believes they can sit anonymously behind a keyboard and make violent threats.”

The sheriff’s office said there were no specific preschools or educational properties mentioned in the threats, and there is no active threat of violence at any Carteret County schools.

“The comments posted by this suspect were violent, hateful and shocking to the conscience,” Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our office worked swiftly to take this subject into custody and worked with the [FBI] to subsequently have him placed into federal custody. … Suspects who make these types of comments will be dealt with as severely as the law allows.”

The contents of the suspect’s alleged comments were not included in this report due to their highly disturbing nature.