Former BGPD officer accused of making threats against Donald Trump

A federal grand jury in Nashville indicted a former Bowling Green Police Department officer Wednesday on two counts of making threats against President Donald Trump on social media accounts.

Andrew Long Ryan, of Greenbrier, Tenn. is accused of making a threat against Trump’s life on Twitter and making a threat on Facebook, according to federal court records.

In a Facebook post dated May 28, Ryan is accused of writing, “I’m calling attention to the fact I’ve warned the President of the United States of death if he doesn’t comply with a directive I have given him… .”

Ryan worked for the police department from 2005 until 2006.

He was arrested on a federal complaint Tuesday and made an appearance in federal court in Nashville. The following day he was indicted.

“On May 29, 2018, the (United States Secret Service) Nashville Field Office was notified by Federal Protective Service ("FPS") SA Brian Coyt that he had been notified by Lieutenant Todd Dorris, Greenbrier Police Department ("GPD"), Greenbrier, Tennessee, that RYAN had posted concerning comments regarding President Donald J. Trump on Ryan’s social media accounts, namely, Facebook and Twitter,” the complaint against Ryan reads. “SA Coyt was particularly concerned because President Trump was scheduled to visit Nashville later that same date. SA Coyt advised that the FPS and the GPD had an active investigation involving Ryan for multiple violations of a domestic violence order of protection and for approaching the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") office in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the FBI office in Nashville.”

In January, Coyt forwarded an officer safety bulletin regarding Ryan that advised he was a former Bowling Green police officer and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to the federal complaint.

In a May 29 Twitter post, Ryan is accused of writing, “I will kill Donald Trump if you don’t follow my leaders (sic) lead.”

In September 2017, local police responded to Ryan’s home on a domestic incident in which Ryan is accused of displaying erratic behavior. During that call, police felt Ryan was a danger to himself and others and had to use a Taser on him three times to gain his compliance. He was taken for a mental health evaluation, records show.

On June 6, a Greenbrier Police Department lieutenant told a federal agent, he felt Ryan was a “ticking time bomb” and had “school shooter written all over him,” records show.

Ryan was arrested June 7 in Tennessee on an accusation that he violated an order of protection taken out against him for his minor children, records show.

Federal agents interviewed Ryan at the Robertson County (Tenn.) Sheriff’s Office.

During an approximately 90-minute interview, Ryan admitted to making the threat against Trump on Facebook.

“I asked Ryan if he knew the reason for our visit,” Secret Service Senior Special Agent J. Scott Bradshaw wrote in his federal complaint against Ryan. “He replied in the affirmative. When I asked him to tell us what the reason was, Ryan stated that he knew that someone from the FBI, the CIA, or some other federal agency would be coming to speak with him because of the writings he had placed on Facebook. I advised Ryan that we were specifically there because of the threat he had made towards President Trump at the time President Trump visited Nashville. I read Ryan what he had written concerning the President in his Facebook post of May 28, 2018. Ryan acknowledged that he had written exactly what I read to him. I asked Ryan if he was aware that it was against the law to threaten to kill the President. Ryan replied that he did know this. Ryan explained further, however, that he was not stating that he would kill the President, but rather that God would ‘take his life.’ I asked Ryan what the ‘directive’ was that Ryan had ordered the President to comply with his post. Ryan advised that President Trump was required to ‘restore’ Ryan’s family to him. I asked Ryan if he thought it was realistic to expect the President of the United States to intervene in his marriage issues. Ryan replied that it was, said emphatically that at some point ‘he’s (President Trump) gonna meet with me or call me.’”

Ryan also told Bradshaw God was behind all his life events which were leading to the end of the world as written in the book of Revelation in the Bible, records show.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.  Friday in Nashville.

In a statement released by Bowling Green Police Chief Doug Hawkins late Thursday afternoon, he pointed out Ryan never worked for the department without a field training officer present.

"Ryan was hired on June 20, 2005. He completed the Department of Criminal Justice Training Basic Academy on Oct. 28, 2005. He then transitioned into our field training program under direct supervision of a police training officer," Hawkins wrote. "Ryan failed to complete the field training program and resigned Feb. 14, 2006. During the entirety of his employment, Ryan was either attending the basic police academy in a non-sworn capacity, or was in a field training program and supervised by a police training officer. Andrew Long Ryan never completed his training and never exercised police powers in an individual capacity while employed by the Bowling Green Police Department."