Indiana school threat a bluff, chief says

INDIANAPOLIS — A northern Indiana police chief said he believes a man facing felony charges for allegedly threatening to “kill as many people as he could” at a school was bluffing.

Interim Cedar Lake Police Chief Jerry Smith said Von I. Meyer, 60, was arguing early Friday with his wife and initially threatened to set her on fire while she was sleeping at their home.

Meyer, who was arrested Saturday on seven felony charges, then told his wife he would kill her “at the school” and “would kill as many people as he could before police could stop him,” Smith said.

Meyer’s wife works at the cafeteria at Jane Ball Elementary School, less than 1,000feet from the couple’s home in Cedar Lake, about 45 miles southeast of Chicago.

Smith said Meyer’s wife stayed away from that school Friday and police boosted security at the elementary school and three other area schools as a precaution, taking those steps before 26 people, including 20 students, were shot and killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

“We just didn’t want to take any chances,” he said of the extra security at the schools.

Although police found 47 guns and ammunition hidden throughout Meyer’s two-story home after they arrested him, Smith said most of those weapons were antique collector guns and he believes Meyer was not serious about his school threat.

He said Meyer’s wife told officers their relationship was turbulent and he had often threatened her.

Meyer fled his home early Friday after his wife reported the alleged threats to police, and he may have gone into hiding in a densely wooded area around his home, Smith said.

Police watched the house, but Meyer apparently slipped back into his home at some point. He was arrested there without incident Saturday on felony intimidation, resisting law enforcement and domestic battery charges.

Meyer remained jailed Sunday without bail at the Lake County jail, pending an initial hearing on the charges. It wasn’t clear Sunday whether he had an attorney.