Man Arrested for Threating to Kill Judge, Police Officers

A man has been arrested for allegedly threatening to get an AR15 and kill a judge and police officers.

The threat was sent via text to an unnamed individual following 57-year-old Jeffrey Len Tanner’s court appearance May 10 in Searcy County.

Court documents in the case indicate law enforcement became aware of the threats made by the man from Marshall when they were contacted by an officer from probation and parole who sent copies of the texts to an investigator with the Searcy County Sheriff’s Office. Tanner has several open cases for charges including battery, intimidating a witness, multiple drugs and weapons charges and indecent exposure.

The first text indicates Tanner believes he will be going to jail for at least five years. He said “I might as well get an AR15 AND walk into court killing all the cops and judge and everyone on (sic) there and im (sic) seriously considering doing just that.”

The person the text was sent to replied “If I were you I wouldn’t say what you just said to me to anyone else. For your own justice. You say that to the wrong person and it could get blown our of proportion quick.”

Tanner replied with several expletives and “I will do what I say.”

Investigators determined the phone number which sent the texts belongs to Tanner, who appeared in court May 10. The texts were sent shortly after his case was heard. When investigators went to Tanner’s home the following day, a female at the house said Tanner was also heard making the same statements as he texted.

Tanner is charged with a felony count of making a terrorist threat and is still jailed in the Searcy County Jail.

Tanner was previously sentenced to 180 days in jail, one-year of supervised probation and banned from any retail establishment in the city of Conway following an indecent exposure incident at a Hobby Lobby store there in 2019.

(Story from KTLO)