Local man allegedly threatens to shoot clinic’s employees
A 54- year- old patient at a local clinic was arrested Tuesday after threatening to shoot its employees.
David Eugene Thomas was taken into custody shortly after 11 a. m. at his residence at 125 Carl Drive, Apt. 25. He was charged with first- degree terroristic threatening, a felony punishable by up to six years in prison. He remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of a $ 2,500 bond and is due in Garland County District Court Aug. 24.
Shortly before 11 a. m. Tuesday, Officer 1st Class Lampinen responded to the Veterans Affairs Clinic, 177 Sawtooth Oak St., in reference to a threat. The clinic manager stated one of the patients, Thomas, called and spoke with a nurse, and became upset. Thomas allegedly stated he would come to the clinic and shoot them. The manager then locked down the clinic.
The nurse stated he had been Thomas’ nurse for some time and he sees him several times a week, and also talks to him on the phone throughout the week. According to the affidavit, when Thomas called he asked if it was the nurse he was seeing at the clinic and when the nurse stated it was, Thomas became nonsensical and upset. He allegedly told the nurse he needed to turn himself into the FBI and he “was coming up there to shoot the lot of ya.”
According to the affidavit, the nurse told Thomas he didn’t need to say those things and asked if he had a gun, at which point Thomas hung up the phone.