A Michigan man facing more than 20 years in prison for threatening to kill his daughter’s teachers by burning their school to the ground avoided jail time Tuesday.
Instead, 38-year-old Thomas Latting received eight years probation after pleading no contest to four felony charges: Ethnic intimidation, intentional threat to commit an act of violence against a school, false report or threat of terrorism and false report or threat of a bomb or harmful device.
The threats were contained with a racist rant by Latting, who was angry that an afterschool activity ended earlier than he expected.
The incident occurred in February. Michigan State Police Det. Stacey Moore said Latting was also confused about where he should collect his daughter. He had arrived around 5:30, well past the 5 p.m. pick-up time, according to Mlive.com.
He directed his animus towards an after-school teacher at McMonagle Elementary School in the Flint suburb of Mt. Morris Township. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Latting used the N-word more than once as part of his threatening remarks.
“I’m going to come back and kill all of you and burn this [expletive] to the ground,” he said while pointing at the school and other staff members, according to Leyton.
The victim said she took Latting seriously, fearing he would follow through with his threats. The incident was reported to the local school superintendent and to the Mt. Morris Police Department, which alerted the FBI Threat Center and the Michigan State Police Intelligence Center, Leyton said.
The arson threat was particularly provocative, as Lassing was convicted in 2009 of one count of arson of a dwelling house, one count of explosives and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. He served seven years in prison.
“Mr. Latting appears to have a volatile personality based not only on this incident, but his past criminal record,” Leyton said. “It was his past record and known history that particularly caused concern in this incident and indicated that we should not take his words at the school as idle threats, but as words to be heeded with great caution.”
