As the new school year was starting a few weeks ago, law enforcement agencies were investigating threats a local man was making against a variety of people and locations, including some schools.

While he posed no credible threat to schools, the case highlighted some of the processes local law enforcement and Great Falls Public Schools use to assess those threats and respond.

Deshon Thomas, 41, was arrested Aug. 28 in connection with several incidents of threatening others. 

He was charged with three felony counts of intimidation, which is defined in state law as “the purpose to cause another to perform or to omit the performance of any act, communicated to another, under circumstances that reasonably tend to produce a fear that it will be carried out, a threat to perform without lawful authority inflict physical harm on the person threatened or any other person.”

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A person convicted of the offense may be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and/or be fined up to $50,000.

Officers responded to a call in early August from a woman who had worked with Thomas at the Center for Mental Health previously and said he was making threats against her. She told officers that he was paranoid and schizophrenic and wanted the incident documented since it scared her due to his unpredictability and that he may have been off his medications, according to court documents.

On Aug. 25, officers responded to a report from a Child and Family Services employee of a 14-minute Facebook video Thomas, a former client, had posted in which he was speaking directly into the camera, threatening multiple groups of people, including state employees, police, sheriffs, military and gays. He also made threats toward C.M. Russell High, Great Falls High and Sacagawea Elementary schools saying, “I will catch you kids and kill you,” according to court documents.

He claimed to have “endless ammunition” and “unlimited missiles.”

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Thomas had made previous threats to the employee for getting involved in his family affairs that she didn’t press charges for but wanted documented.

On Aug. 27, Thomas made multiple threatening phone calls to the Montana Air National Guard resulting in a security lockdown.

While responding to separate calls on Aug. 28, officers saw Thomas standing on a street corner, detained and transported him to the Great Falls Police Department for an interview. Officers also obtained a search warrant for his residence to check for weapons and electronic communication devices.

No weapons or ammunition were found during the search.

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An Air Force investigator interviewed Thomas for the threats against the Guard and GFPD interviewed him pertaining to the threats against the community, schools and businesses.

During the interview, Thomas “repeatedly said it was his mission to get rid of the gays and the people with green ooze. When asked how he would accomplish this mission he stated he would use his superhuman powers such as a laser from his VCR and electricity in his fingers,” and officers reported that he was rambling but they gathered he “has hatred for specific types of people and believes with his superpowers he can harm them,” according to court documents.

Thomas remains in the county jail on a $75,000 bond, as of Sept. 17.

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Sgt. Katie Cunningham of the GFPD oversees the other four school resource officers and is based in Great Falls High.

In the case of something like Thomas’ threats, she said they investigate a complaint, including the person’s history, whether it’s an adult with kids in the district, or someone in a mental health crisis, and whether they have access to weapons.

They can’t discount that a person might have current access to weapons even if they didn’t have them previously.

Generally, Cunningham said they take a proactive approach and trespass someone making threats from school property so they can’t come to a building without being arrested and make office staff aware of the person.

If the person making threats is a student in the district or with a tie to a school, there’s a separate process that may include keeping the student out of school until they can investigate.

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Cunningham said they get threats “quite often.”

Before school starts they do threat assessments of students who might pose a risk, often if something has happened over the summer to bring a student to their attention, such as gang activity or other criminal activity.

SROs and district officials determine if a student might be a risk and whether it can be mitigated, discussing it with the student and their family.

Within GFPS, the major responses are:

• shelter in place: for a threat outside of the building so that a threat doesn’t make its way into the building. It’s often precautionary for things like police activity in the area of a school or if there’s a vehicle chase, they’ll put schools on the major thoroughfares in shelter in place to ensure no students are outside in case it comes in their direction.
• lockdown: for a threat inside the building, so that law enforcement can find the threat and ensure everyone is safe.

For the threat assessment process and potential criminal investigation, Cunningham said they consider whether a person making a threat has the means, opportunity and intent to commit the threat.

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If they do, they could be charged with intimidation, even if they don’t have access to weapons, as in the case of Thomas.

The SROs partner with GFPD administration to share information so everyone is aware of a threat, why it’s being made and how much weight is behind it. 

In the Thomas case, he was making a lot of threats to a variety of people and agencies that Cunningham said they don’t discount, but look at those factors to determine any response.

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The same goes for students, Cunningham said, since they may not have access to weapons and may say something threatening in the heat of a moment.

Not every child is charged, she said, and they consider those on a case by case basis, having conversations with their parents regarding whether there are firearms in the home, if the student has access or knows the code to the safe, among other factors.

She said they’re planning to do more armed intruder training this school year, particularly for new teachers, and different schools and grades do different activities to help students be aware of what to do in such a situation.

In Great Falls, there are five SROs who are assigned to specific schools but can cover others if needed and they are the only armed people within the schools.

Last summer, the city and district updated their agreement to add a fifth SRO, up from the longstanding four officers covering district school buildings and events.

GFPS covers 75 percent of the cost of those officers and the city covers the remaining 25 percent.

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“Our law enforcement is prepared, our SROs do everything we can to make sure buildings are safe and secure,” Cunningham said. “I’m pretty proud of the work that we do.”

In the county, Sheriff Jesse Slaughter is looking at using reserve deputies to augment school safety.

The county has previously and currently used reserve deputies, but this spring, the Legislature passed HB 323 allowing counties to be paid.

The provision, which was added to a section of state law that addresses compensation of county elected officials and some other employees, states that “a reserve deputy sheriff’s officer may be compensated in a manner determined by the board of county commissioners.”

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During a May budget meeting, Slaughter told commissioners to think about that option as they could now be compensated but don’t receive benefits like a full-time deputy.

In May, he told commissioners he was considering using them to support school safety, which would be a “huge force multiplier in public safety,” but will need to develop a structured program.

Slaughter told The Electric on Sept. 16 that he was nearly finished drafting the job description and he was working with the county human resources department to propose a salary range that commissioners will have to consider and approve.

He said he hasn’t advertised the program yet or started recruiting since the pay range hasn’t been set and available funding will determine how many reserve deputies the county can start with and when the program can roll out.

The new law goes into effect Oct. 1 and Gov. Greg Gianforte visited the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 17 to highlight the legislation that he’d signed in May.

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Slaughter told The Electric that he’ll start with placing the reserve deputies in public county schools and depending on how many he has they may be in plainclothes but the deputies and school staff will know who they are.

CCSO currently has three community resources deputies, with a supervisor, who’s primary duties are school safety in their assigned areas, but they’ll also respond to calls in that area.

Under state law, a reserve deputy has to have certain qualifications and be trained and certified before they may carry a weapon. They must also complete training requirements.

Reserve deputies are “vested with the same powers, rights, privileges, obligations, and duties as any other peace officer of this state upon being activated by the chief law enforcement administrator of the local government and while on assigned duty only,” according to state law and they may only act in a supplementary capacity to the law enforcement agency and must be supervised by a full-time law enforcement officer within their span of control, which can be via radio communication.

Current state law prohibits a local government from reducing the “authorized number of full-time law enforcement officers through the appointment or utilization of reserve officers.”

Here’s a brief overview of GFPS safety protocols and more information is available here.