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A homeless man in Arizona reportedly suffering from schizophrenia has been taken into federal custody after threatening a "mass casualty event" at a college football game last year, according to law enforcement.
Andrew Buchanan, 38, has been accused of calling in threats to the Army-Navy football game on December 8 last year. The annual showdown took place at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
A family member reported Buchanan to the FBI after he told them that he would be in the news and that a mass casualty event would occur during the football game, the Associated Press reports.
While Buchanan allegedly did call in a threat, the game continued without issue and federal authorities traced his call.
In addition to threatening the Army-Navy event, Buchanan also allegedly made threats to carry out a mass shooting at Bryant University, Rhode Island a few days after the football game. He allegedly made that call to the student admissions office, which then reported it to the FBI.
“[The school employee] said the voice said ‘bang, bang; I’m coming to shoot up the campus,'” according to court documents. “The caller further stated he was ‘coming for the Bulldogs’ and the only way to stop him from shooting up the school was to ‘pay him $1 million.'”
The FBI traced his line and found that he was living in California, where police placed him on a 72-hour involuntary medical hold after making contact.
Two other witnesses also reported Buchanan to the FBI after he allegedly threatened to kill them and hurt their families, according to WPRI. The witnesses said that Buchanan claimed they owed him millions of dollars.
At some point after he was released from the medical hold, Buchanan moved to Tucson, Arizona.
The 38-year-old was arrested on July 31 in Tucson where he was reportedly homeless. He was formerly a resident of Burrillville, Rhode Island, about 20 minutes from the Bryant University campus.
He is being held in Arizona and will be extradited to Rhode Island to face trial in Providence District Court. Buchanan has been charged with one felony count of interstate threatening communications, according to prosecutors. The maximum penalty for that charge, if he is convicted, is five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
According to WPRI, Buchanan has an extensive criminal history that includes charges for alleged DUI, harassing communications, intimidation, assault, menacing, trespassing, and contempt of court.
He had numerous run-ins with police while he was living in Denver for a period last year. In January 2023, police at Denver International Airport arrested Buchanan after he entered the facility and began "yelling down the hallway."
When police at the airport made contact with him, he began making "nonsensical statements to officers and DIA operations staff," according to a report. He returned to the airport the following day and was again arrested for trespassing.
Two months later, he was arrested a third time after police received a report from a worker at a storage facility that Buchanan had been sleeping on the property and that he'd yelled "offensive language."
Police responding to the incident said Buchanan left the facility and began "pounding on the windows" of the Wings Over the Rockies Museum, after which he was arrested.
In December 2023, federal investigators spoke with members of Buchanan's family, who said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been suffering from mental health issues for more than a decade.
