FBI: Lexington man threatened to kill a sheriff after teen was fatally shot by deputy

Jeremy Chisenhall
·2 min read

A Lexington man is accused of threatening to kill an Arkansas sheriff after one of the sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a teenager earlier this year, according to federal court records.

Jeremy Anderson, 40, has been federally indicted over a voicemail he allegedly left for local officials in Lonoke, Arkansas, after a Lonoke County sheriff’s deputy shot a 17-year-old in June. Anderson allegedly threatened to kill the sheriff in the voicemail.

“I will bring that f*****g s**t down,” Anderson said in the voicemail, according to an affidavit written by an FBI agent. “I think I’m gonna come down there and make an example of your f*****g county.“

Anderson “was verbally aggressive in his speech and demanded that Sheriff John Staley resign and that the deputy involved in the shooting be charged with murder,” the FBI agent wrote in the affidavit.

The call was placed on June 29, according to court records. That was less than one week after 17-year-old Hunter Brittain died from gunshot wounds to the neck and arm, according to multiple reports. The deputy, Sgt. Michael Davis, was fired after the shooting. Davis didn’t turn his body camera on until after the killing, according to Staley, the local sheriff.

Family members have said Brittain was holding a jug of antifreeze and was unarmed when he was shot during a traffic stop, according to the AP.

In September, Davis was charged with manslaughter, according to multiple reports.

An FBI agent in Arkansas first investigated Anderson’s alleged threat. That office coordinated with the FBI in Louisville after discovering that Anderson possibly lived in Kentucky.

Anderson was previously given two years of unsupervised probation after prior terroristic threatening incidents, according to court records.

Investigators used audio and video from previous investigative records to help determine Anderson was the one making the Lonoke threat, according to court records. They also obtained phone records to confirm Anderson’s phone number was the same as the one used to call Lonoke officials to make the threat.

Anderson called the Lonoke mayor’s office, according to court records. The threat was passed along to the Lonoke Police Department.

Anderson was federally indicted last week on a charge of interstate communications with a threat to injure. He was summoned to appear in federal court in Lexington on Nov. 3, according to court records.