A man thought to be in his 50s, who is known to both Olympia police and the city’s crisis response unit, allegedly made a threat at Capital Mall last week, a spokesman for the police department said Tuesday.
Once police locate the man, he will be “trespassed from the mall,” Lt. Paul Lower said.
The man, who is known to visit the mall and ask for free food at a certain restaurant, allegedly becomes agitated when he is turned down, Lower said.
On Wednesday, Sept. 5, he again went to the mall, visited a certain restaurant and made the same request.
Two employees turned him down to which he replied by saying that “he would have the police or someone come and shoot up the mall,” Lower said.
The restaurant employees then gave him some food and he left. The next day the restaurant manager reported the incident to Olympia police.
A variation of the threat also found its way to social media, which rippled across several web sites, including the Olympia page of Reddit.
Although the man is known to police, he does not have a fixed address which makes him difficult to locate, Lower said. He also has never been known to have a weapon, Lower added.
If the man returns, restaurant staff have been advised to contact police or mall security, he said.
“He makes odd statements when he’s in crisis,” said Lower about the man, adding that the crisis response unit has tried multiple times to get him some help.
