Back in 2023, the Kansas City Assembly plant in Claycomo, Missouri – which builds the Ford F-150 and Ford Transit – was evacuated after a man claiming to be an employee at the plant called FoMoCo’s safety and risk management team to say he was disgruntled, barricaded in a bathroom at the facility, and armed with explosives, a rifle, and a handgun. Ford evacuated the plant while Clay County deputies, Kansas City and Claycomo Police, and the FBI responded to the call, after which the suspect was located and taken into custody. Now, that same man has plead guilty to the charge brought against him.
According to the Kansas City Star, Zachariah Peterson, of Independence, Missouri, has plead guilty in Clay County Circuit Court to one count of making a terrorist threat – a Class D felony that carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine. In his plea, Peterson admitted that he a person inside of the Ford F-150 plant was armed with explosives and firearms. When Petersen called in his threat, he allegedly told Ford’s risk and safety management team that he would “start shooting” people if the automaker didn’t evacuate the 2,200 or so employees that were on duty at the time.
Turns out, that threat was an empty one, as we later discovered. Peterson didn’t make the call because he was a disgruntled worker at the plant, nor did he have any grievance with the company or any workers there – rather, he simply wanted to ensure that his friend that does work at the Kansas City plant got the night off. He told police that he downloaded an app on his smartphone that allowed him to conceal his phone number, which made it more difficult to trace at the onset of the investigation.
According to the terms of his plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend that Petersen be sentenced to four years in prison. He was scheduled to face a jury trial later this month, but now, he’s set to be sentenced on September 3rd.
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