Man indicted for alleged posts alluding to active shooter at Nashville school
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A man accused of making threats that alluded to an active shooter targeting a Nashville elementary school has now been indicted on a federal charge.
A federal grand jury for the Middle District of Tennessee returned an indictment charging 46-year-old Brian Jones with one count of interstate communication containing a threat to injure, according to court documents filed on Sept. 8.
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The federal charge stems from an FBI investigation launched after Jones was arrested by the Metro Nashville Police Department on May 9. Officers received a call from a woman in Colorado who was concerned after noticing some apparent threats being made over social media.
In an arrest affidavit, police said the woman told them the person behind the account appeared to be “fixated on a student and took numerous pictures of the elementary school student.” She also saw a post in which the user reportedly made threats toward a teacher.
The woman told police she did not know Jones but “was concerned for the staff and school children,” the affidavit said. Authorities opened his publicly available Twitter page, now known as X, and saw several videos and photos that they said were consistent with the woman’s report.
Time stamps on the posts showed they were created around 2 p.m. on May 9, and many of them showed Paragon Mills Elementary School. The images were captioned with alleged threats like, “Children no parents your going to die” and “Shooter says you can’t stop this.”
Another caption read, “Your Lazy ness [sic] got these kids killed.” The account also had videos that showed Jones driving by the school and saying, “Bomb C4,” according to police. One video allegedly depicted him tying string around an object he said was “enough C4 to blow up a school.”
That same day, school staff reportedly noticed a man yelling at students during dismissal and reported it to Metro Nashville Public Schools security, according to the school district.
The affidavit said police figured out Jones’ location after they spotted an envelope with his address on it while reviewing the videos. According to investigators, the address was near the elementary school on Paragon Mills Road.
Some of the photos also appeared to have been taken from his residence. Upon further investigation, officers said they learned Jones has a history of mental health crises and making threats toward the elementary school.
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However, no firearms or explosive materials were found when Metro police searched his home.
Jones was booked into jail that same day on local charges of making a threat of mass violence against a school and making a false report. As of Sept. 11, he remained behind bars on a mental health hold.
Officials said additional security and police officers were stationed at the elementary school the morning the possible threats were reported. In an emailed statement, the school district thanked police for their “quick work” to “investigate the situation and take the suspect into custody.”
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