On the same Friday morning that Adam Lanza killed 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a man in northern Indiana threatened to commit a similar act. Police were called to the home of Von I. Meyer that morning, after he threatened to set his wife on fire while she slept. Meyer also threatened to go to the elementary school near his Cedar Lake home and “kill as many people as he could before police could stop him,” according to a statement from police.
Cedar Hook Police responded by reinforcing the security at all of the area schools and notifying district officials. Jane Ball Elementary School was less than 1,000 feet away from Meyer’s home, with paths leading directly to the school.
The following day, police returned to Meyers’s home with warrants for his arrest and the search of his home, discovering 47 guns and ammunition in the 60-year-old man’s possession as well as $100,000 hidden in the two-story house. Cedar Lake Police Chief Jerry Smith later commented that Meyer’s threats were made in a state of rage, rather than a plan of action.
“If people followed through on all the threats they’ve ever made — things said in anger that they don’t really mean and regret — our population in this country would be half of what it is,” Smith told the Associated Press “This was something he said in the heat of an argument. He hadn’t been plotting this.”
“We just didn’t want to take any chances,” he added.
Meyer was charged with seven felonies, including felony intimidation, resisting law enforcement and domestic battery. Initial reports linked Meyer to the Invaders Motorcycle Gang in his youth, but police say he is no longer an active member. As of Sunday he remained in Lake County Jail awaiting a hearing for bond.
