Jefferson City man charged with Walmart shooting threat
Prosecutors charged a Jefferson City Walmart employee last week with threatening to shoot up the store, and investigators say he has also made comments “synonymous with shooting a school” in another incident.
Nicholas B. Pratte, 38, was jailed Friday without bond and charged with second-degree making a terrorist threat after police say he made a comment about getting a gun and shooting people after supervisors were critical of him in a meeting.
The incident led to the Walmart store bringing in external security to guard the store, according to a probable cause statement filed in his case.
A co-worker told police he felt like Pratte has “the capacity to follow through with his statements, ” citing another statement Pratte made about shooting a school if his daughter got pregnant, according the statement. The statement says Jefferson City police had talked to Pratte in reference to comments he made “synonymous with shooting a school,” causing Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Capital City High School to go on lockdown.
A Jefferson City Police Department incident report shows the incident happened on Aug. 30, when those schools were locked down for what school officials called “an external threat.” According to the report, an employee told police that Pratte said he was going to “murder everyone in that school.”
Pratte told police he did not mean the comment literally, according to the report.
The statement says Pratte was convicted in 2002 of child endangerment in Moniteau County.
No lawyer was listed for Pratte in online court records. Arraignment was set for Monday afternoon.
