A former Lauderdale County School District teacher remained in the Lauderdale County Detention Facility Friday afternoon after his arrest Thursday night for allegedly posting a threatening message on social media earlier in the week.
Law enforcement agencies served a search warrant Thursday night in the 1200 block of 64th Court in Meridian at a residence where the suspect, Daniel Christian Johnson, 36, was living, Sheriff Ward Calhoun said during a news conference Friday morning.
“Our school resource officers were made aware of a threat that was put out on social media earlier this week. Based upon that threat, we began to investigate and look into the person who we’ve had contact with in the past in regards to the postings that were being made,” the sheriff said.
Based upon the nature of the posts, the sheriff’s department began working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and officials with the Meridian Police Department, which led to the search warrant being issued, he said.
Johnson was arrested and charged with one count of making a terroristic threat. He is currently being held without bond in the Lauderdale County Detention Facility. A bond hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 3.
The threatening messages “were addressed not toward a particular school but more toward personnel that worked at the school,” Calhoun said. “The school itself, if we’d had a threat that we felt like was immediate, we would have taken different action obviously, but we did not have that. We chose to continue our investigation and to work with the resources that were made available to us to make sure we had a thorough investigation.”
LCSD Superintendent John-Mark Cain confirmed Johnson formerly taught at Clarkdale Attendance Center but resigned several years ago.
Calhoun confirmed there had been other incidents involving Johnson’s social media posting in the past, but charges were not filed.
“We have had interaction with Mr. Johnson in the past. Previously there were no charges filed,” the sheriff said. “We took other measures in order to work with him, and no charges were filed with those. They didn’t cross the line.”
Calhoun said the individuals named in the most recent posting had all been notified of the threatening message.
FBI officers, in their search of Johnson’s residence Thursday night, discovered evidence that they will move forward with in a separate investigation, Calhoun said.
“This is the only state charge he has right now, but he may have other charges coming once they complete their federal investigation. We won’t know that until their investigation is complete,” said District Attorney Kassie Coleman.
It is the second time this week that local law enforcement officers have apprehended and charged someone with making terroristic threats against a school or school personnel. Early Wednesday morning, authorities with the Meridian Public School District Campus Police, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security arrested a 37-year-old former Meridian resident in Flowood for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to Carver Elementary School on Tuesday. The man, Kelvin Nix, was also charged with making a terroristic threat.
“First we want to thank the community and the schools for making sure we were aware of these threats,” Calhoun said. “We have all seen over the last several weeks, numerous threats made not only in our community but across our nation where people are making threats that are not allowed. You cannot make terroristic threats, even though it’s on social media. That is not free speech, no different than you can walk in the middle of a theater and scream ‘fire.’”