Man arrested for making threats against school

UPDATED 10:18PM

ST. JOSEPH -- A wife is defending her husband after police say he threatened to shoot up a school.

Sheriff's deputies arrested 34-year-old Uriah Fosdick at his home in St. Joseph this afternoon.

He lives just a few houses down from the high school. Investigators say the threats happened well before today's arrest.

We talked to Fosdick's wife. Says she was with him on Saturday night at their home. She says a deputy stopped by to serve him papers for something that had nothing to do with today's incident.

That's when investigators say Fosdick threatened violence at St. Joe-Ogden. She says that never happened. But the sheriff's office and school district weren't taking any chances.

It didn't take long for parents to learn their children were safe at St. Joe-Ogden. In fact they knew it before realizing a threat had even happened. 

"I received a phone call reporting the incident via the phone and I also checked on my internet," said parent Connie Weston.

"We wanted to do it in a way that was going to create the least amount of panic possible, knowing that we're going to create a lot of anxiety once that got pushed out," said superintendent Jim Acklin.

Investigators told him Monday morning that Uriah Fosdick threatened to shoot up their building, but that they would have him in cuffs soon. Deputies staked out his house and arrested him before the final bell rang.

"The arrest was at 1:04pm, we pushed that information out at approximately 1:35pm," said Acklin.

He wasn't concerned the suspect could get in the school. The doors are locked every day and all day. And the only way you can get in is to be buzzed first. Acklin says it's a precaution that needs to happen every day.

"We'll remind our staff and student body not the let anyone in through any of the side doors that locked during the day as well, just to remain vigilant," he said. "It makes me sad that we've reached a point as a society apparently where you have to have those plans in place, but that's the reality of it."

Fosdick's wife says despite his arrest, he's not a violent man. Police say no weapons were in the home when he was arrested. He's being held on $750,000 bond.

St. Joe-Ogden High School has a school resource officer. Acklin says she works with all the schools between the towns. She has a daily routine, but Acklin says all that was pushed aside when she learned about the threat.

He says that's part of their crisis management plan, something they luckily rehearsed a few weeks earlier.

"I'm very thankful that there is someone in the school who is a law enforcement individual and I think that law enforcement individuals are needed in our schools," added Weston.

Despite being happy with how things turned out, Acklin says the school will continue to practice and revise their plan.