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Press Release

Oklahoma City Man To Serve Six Months In Prison For Making Threat To Commit Violence In Wyoming

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Today, GLENN ALLEN KIRKHAM, 34, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was sentenced by United States District Judge Robin Cauthron to serve six months in prison for making a threat to commit violence in Casper, Wyoming, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

On January 14, 2013, public officials in and around Casper, Wyoming, received numerous reports from various sources of a threatened attack in Casper using multiple types of weapons. The threat had been posted from Oklahoma City on 4chan.org, an internet-based bulletin board service. The posting was quickly distributed throughout social media and caused significant concern in the community. The threat came not long after Casper had experienced a homicide/suicide at a local college. As a result of the threat, officials immediately took precautions that included placing 40 schools on lockdown, notifying hospitals and nursing homes, and placing police officers at potential locations of an attack.

Kirkham pled guilty on March 20, 2013. At today’s sentencing hearing, Judge Cauthron noted that even though the defendant had no criminal history and may have viewed the threat as some sort of joke, incarceration was important as a deterrent to those tempted to use the internet to cause wide-spread fear and disrupt public services.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Casper Police Department in Wyoming. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark A. Yancey and Scott E. Williams.

Updated December 15, 2014