FLAGSTAFF — The Flagstaff Police Department has made arrests in a series of threatening calls made to Flagstaff public schools beginning last march. Calls were made to the Thomas Elementary school and later to the Marshall and Knoles Elementary schools and Mount Elden Middle School. Police and FBI arrested 29-year-old Viktor Lisnyak of Staten Island.
Police detectives have been aggressively investigating the series of threats with the aide of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Detective Sergeant Ryan Beckman along with Detectives Adrian Barreras, and Casey Rucker worked on the investigation. This information was shared with the local FBI office and together a collective investigation commenced. Detectives Barreras and Rucker are cross deputized as special deputies through the FBI. This collaboration allowed the investigation to progress with the help of federal resources.
These combined investigations began in March when Thomas Elementary school received a threat from a computer generated type call indicating the caller was armed, suicidal, and near children. Other threatening calls were later received at Marshall Elementary, Knoles Elementary, and Mount Elden Middle School. All of these calls had certain details in common, and every threat was taken seriously. Flagstaff Unified School District employees as well as the Flagstaff Police Department remained vigilant in their emergency lock down responses.
The Flagstaff Police Department and the Flagstaff Unified School District met with concerned parents at the Flagstaff High School Gym on April 23, 2015 to assure the community of our continuing investigation and to answer any questions. Flagstaff Police Department personnel also met with school officials to rehearse strategies and review best practices on responding to these types of threats.
On July 15, 2015 Detectives Barreras and Rucker flew to New York accompanied by a FBI special agent. Upon arriving in Staten Island, they were able to make contact with Viktor Linsyak. Lisnyak admitted making threatening phone calls to Flagstaff schools.
Lisnyak was taken into custody, and is scheduled to appear in Arizona Federal court on July 29, 2015 on five counts of violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 875 (c), which reads
Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Each one of these counts may result in a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There is a potential to obtain restitution for the emergency school responses and investigative costs of these calls.
Flagstaff Police Chief Kevin Treadway concluded, “We heard our communities concerns in regards to these shameful threats against our children and in April, the Flagstaff Police Department vowed to do our best to identify and apprehend the individual responsible. Our detectives have been working tirelessly since, and their tenacity paid off. We appreciate the close working relationship we have with the FBI and FUSD, relationships that were strengthened through this experience. I am happy our children, teachers and parents can be relieved of this burden as school begins this fall semester”.