Judge rules Cary man must undergo mental health evaluation after threatening to kill children
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A Cary man with a lengthy criminal history who was accused of threatening to shoot children – leading to FBI involvement and two arrests over a 24-hour span appeared in court on Wednesday.
A judge ordered Kevin Douglas undergo a mental health evaluation, meaning all other hearings will be delayed until after the evaluation. US Marshals were brought into the courtroom due to Douglas' threat risk.
Douglas was originally expected to appear in court on Nov. 7, but the hearing was delayed until Wednesday.
Douglas' last mental health evaluation was in 2016. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia several times.
Douglas, 46, of Cary, was arrested on Nov. 1 at the Extended Stay America on 600 Weston Parkway in Cary on charges related to cyberstalking and communicating threats. Several of the threats seemed to target a day care center across the street from the motel where he lived. Less than 24 hours after being released, Douglas was arrested again.
Officials said Douglas made nine threatening reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), some of which talked about how he wanted to kill children. An agent who worked on the criminal complaint believes Douglas may have been talking about children at Bright Horizons, a daycare next to Weston Parkway. Spanish for Fun! a Spanish Immersion childcare and preschool center, is also nearby on Endeavor Way.
Newly released search warrants show authorities did not find weapons in the hotel room where Douglas arrested. They did take computers, storage devices, a phone and a canister of pepper spray.
Documents show reports written by Douglas
On Nov. 1, shortly after his initial arrest, Douglas was released on a $1,000 secured bond. Douglas was taken back into custody the morning of Nov. 2 for using his phone, which violated pre-trial conditions set by a judge, according to warrants.
Douglas called WRAL's newsroom on Nov. 2 right before his second arrest. He spoke to a reporter, claiming the arrest was a misunderstanding.
A federal document showed Douglas was responsible for sending a series of reports to the NCMEC via their cybertip reporting service. Some of the writings from Tuesday were, as follows:
- "I am going to shoot any attorney where is a cop omg omg is floursecnece your so pretty I am going to shoot, Viktoria is across the street with 30 Mexican children from South American which is north of Central American which is not here in Raleigh NC Tomorrow, before they FEEEEEAST."
- "this is the family of the people im going to kill tonight in 2 hours in this hotel, but I had computers and I contact soviet vlad vlad, more than anyone on earth in 40 years on email from 1950 and keyboard from 1887 typerwriter....."
- "IM ABOSLUTEL Y INSANE AND DOING COCAINE VAPOR RUG FROM A VAPOR DRUG STOREJN MEJJICO GUATAMELAAA IM GOING TO KILL ALL OF THEM POLIZEI POLICIE I AM HERE l AM POLLZEIZ POLICI I KILL YOU I AM GOING TO MRUDER EVERY CHLLD IN TI IE HOTEL NOWOWWWWWWWWWW"3
- "in a ritual-killing (database please sql) im going tok ill aJI the mexican city children in the area that area az.tec TlIERES 45 children near me and they were bashing on my door claiming to kill me for playing ukraibnian music notw theres soviets in the hotel im going to custom order a kill on 40 .f****** mexican children starting with their mother telling me. 114
The Cary Police Department said officers received a notification from the NCMEC about someone threatening a mass shooting against children.
Cary investigators said they determined the threat to be credible, but Douglas told WRAL News he was only trying to file a report of someone else making a threat against children.
Douglas called the WRAL newsroom on Thursday around 8:30 a.m. He mentioned seeing himself on TV more than 55 times regarding his arrest. Douglas claimed he was only filing the report and added he thinks the FBI is trying to pin this crime on him.
WRAL News spoke with Douglas' mother, who said her son suffers from mental illness but has declined treatment.
The Raleigh Police Department, Cary Fire Department, Wake Regional SWAT team and FBI worked jointly on Nov. 1 to take Douglas into custody at the Extended Stay America.
During a news conference, U.S. Attorney Mike Easley said the fact that Douglas was so close to a daycare "raised our level of concern."
“We are in an era where people can very quickly mobilize toward violence," said Easley. "Where every threat is a threat we must take seriously ... we must be vigilant."
Easley said they don't believe there's any credible, ongoing threat to Bright Horizons.
Douglas was released from federal prison in 2016 after being accused of threatening to kill someone at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., according to documents. The document explains that Douglas has a criminal history dating back to 2002 and includes offenses from multiple states.
Douglas was first charged at a state level, but these most recent threats were deemed appropriate for federal prosecution because of the NCMEC's involvement in Virginia, making it a multi-state threat.
Douglas is not legally allowed to own a weapon due to his 2016 federal conviction.
Douglas had a federal hearing on Nov. 2 and is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. He has a federal detention hearing Wednesday morning in downtown Raleigh.
Over the past 15 years, Douglas has been charged with cyber stalking three times in Wake County, but all of those cases were dismissed.
