SPOKANE — Spokane City Hall was placed under lockdown Monday afternoon in response to an alleged threat from a man who previously threatened to kidnap former Mayor Nadine Woodward and in recent months has threatened Mayor Lisa Brown.
Chesed B. Johnson, 46, sent an email to council members Monday threatening to commit suicide by cop. He also posted that email in full to the City Council’s Facebook page, writing that “Tonight a veteran will die infront of city hall.”
“Please cancel city hall meeting,” the email stated. “I am going to make the police kill me infront of city hall tonight.”
City Hall was placed under lockdown, with employees being allowed to exit the building with a police escort, according to various city sources, including Councilman Michael Cathcart. The Spokane City Council canceled the rest of its Monday meetings as a result of the threat.
Johnson had court cases related to threatening Woodward and former Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, a case that had devolved in recent months as Johnson began to send threatening emails to Brown and new police Chief Kevin Hall, according to court records.
Woodward was harassed and stalked by Johnson throughout her time in office, according to court documents filed in January.
The threats spanned from 2020, when Woodward began her term as mayor, through 2023.
According to the documents, Johnson began emailing Woodward about grievances he had against the Spokane Police Department. It escalated to emails claiming he was outside Woodward’s home, was going to kidnap her, was threatening to destroy her husband’s business, was seeking out her family members’ addresses to “disparage” her and was going to make her “pay.”
Johnson was convicted in 2022 of harassing Woodward, placed on probation and issued a no-contact order while completing mental health treatment. In November last year, court documents say, Johnson approached Woodward at a Christmas tree lighting downtown as she was leaving. He allegedly told her “I’m going to make you listen to me,” and Woodward felt afraid, so she asked a citizen to walk her the rest of the way back to her car and called the police.
When law enforcement went to Johnson’s home to arrest him for violating his release conditions, he slammed the door and refused to come out, records say, but after several hours he was taken into custody without incident.
Documents say he also had a history of threatening police, including Meidl.
“Spokane is gonna get a taste of my military training … Everyone will feel my suffering,” he was quoted as saying in an email to Meidl last year.
Johnson’s criminal history since 2019 has been extensive, largely for harassment, stalking and making threats.
In 2019, Johnson threatened to commit a mass shooting at a Wells Fargo where he was fired after he was accused of harassing a female co-worker.
Johnson pleaded guilty to felony harassment for the Wells Fargo threat and was sentenced to 131 days in jail. He was accepted into felony mental health court but had that diversion terminated after he allegedly committed cyberstalking and posted messages online violating a protection order.
He later faced felony charges for harassment and cyberstalking of former coworkers, particularly a female coworker who refused to go on a date with Johnson, according to court documents.
Johnson was charged in November 2021 for threatening to kidnap Woodward or otherwise harm her family; that case was resolved with probation that required Johnson to complete mental health treatment. Johnson was charged in 2022 for threatening to kill Meidl and an officer in the police department, to which Johnson pleaded to felony criminal mischief.
Johnson was again charged with threatening city police officers later in 2022 and was convicted of cyberstalking in 2023.
The most recent charges against Johnson began in late 2023 with further threats made against Meidl and Woodward. He was sentenced to seven months in jail, and in July was ordered to begin treatment as the case was diverted to mental health court.
In a Monday interview, Woodward said that she felt the system broke down with Johnson’s case and that he was not receiving the mental health care or monitoring of his behavior that he needed. When Johnson was released in July, Woodward said she had expected him to be sent to housing that would provide mental health services and prevent him from committing further crimes; instead, she said he was released to a downtown motel.
“You’ve got a pattern here, and this individual is not getting the help he needs, and something bad is going to happen,” Woodward said.
Woodward declined an interview when The Spokesman-Review reported on Johnson’s harassment of the former mayor in January. She said she agreed to an interview Monday to bring attention to systematic failures that allowed Johnson to continue making threats.
“I’m only doing this because we need to do better with mental health,” she said. “We need to do better as a society with mental health, and we’re not even scratching the surface with the people who need care.”
By September, prosecutors requested that Johnson be removed from the mental health court system after he was charged with new counts of cyber harassment and telephone harassment for sending Brown messages demanding a meeting or else threatening to confront her in public. After the mayor’s office informed police of this communication, Johnson wrote another email expanding on his prior threats.
After chastising Brown for not meeting with him, Johnson wrote her: “You just made the biggest mistake of your life.”
Despite these communications, Johnson was kept in mental health court over the objection of prosecutors.
Johnson sent another batch of emails on Oct. 21, including one to Brown with the subject line “Uh Oh Speghettio.”
“Big mistake,” Johnson wrote. “Must be nice knowing you have access to the courts…I will be going full tilt against you.”
He signed that email “Your enemy.”
A judge signed an order for his arrest on Oct. 29.
Johnson sent Hall an email the same day, describing himself as a “100% disabled veteran with PTSD and a fuse that has gotten much shorter over the years.”
Johnson recently applied for a position on the Spokane Human Rights Commission, but his application was denied due to an outstanding restraining order, said commission Chair Anwar Peace.
