Update: DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Davenport police have identified the person placing vigilante-style flyers around the Hilltop Neighborhood over the weekend.
They have charged Adam Mayber, 20, of Wonder Lake, Illinois with disorderly conduct for admitting to "ciruclating and posting flyers at multiple locations in the city advertising that a vigilante will begin killing 'the homeless, the addicts, the junkies, the prostitutes, the gang members and all other human species."
According to police, Mayber turned himself in as the author of the flyers on Sept. 4, 2018. He reportedly told police that the Night Lion "is the main character of his fictional novel" and that the flyers were put up as a form of publicity. He told police they were not intended to be threatening.
"I am truly sorry," Mayber told WQAD News 8.
"I became blind to the words that I had on my page, and I became blind to my own goals of me wanted to get this book out," Mayber continued.
Police say the public was never in any danger as a result of the weekend postings.
Mayber says he is an accounting major at Saint Ambrose University and a former intern in finance and accounting at Lee Enterprises.
He later quit that internship after he surrendered to the police.
Earlier: People living in the Hilltop neighborhood in Davenport say something needs to be done about the violence and homelessness in the city. But they also say a poster that popped up over the weekend is trying to fix those problems in the wrong way.
"Things need to be done, but not in a violent way," Lisa DeAngelis said.
One person, who posted a photo of the sign on Facebook, said they saw 100 of these fliers put up around the neighborhood.
Someone calling themselves the "Night Lion" wrote that homeless people, addicts and gang members are "nothing but vermin" that "need to permanently disappear" to clean up the city. Later in the letter, the writer refers to a loaded gun.
"So is he going to kill them to clean them up?" DeAngelis asked. "Is that how he plans on cleaning up Davenport? How is that going to clean up anything? That's just going to make problems worse."
Davenport Police said they're investigating the fliers and whoever put them up could face charges.
"I think he needs to sit in jail for a while or go to prison or something," Theresa Kemp said. "It's just not okay to do that."
The author of the sign also said the police haven't done enough to fix the problems in the city and that "vigilante justice is of vital importance when impotent men we call 'policemen' hide behind their badges and the 'law.'"
Some in the neighborhood said they agree the police can do more to alleviate the problems in the city, but they couldn't agree with a violent solution.
"The cops just don't seem to care," Kemp said. "But I really wouldn't want the guy walking up on me, killing me... I think [the person who wrote the fliers is] wrong."
The posters have been removed from the power line poles.
"I feel sorry for the homeless," DeAngelis said. "I don't think that's right that anyone would want to come after them when what they should be doing is helping them, not harming them."
