Anchorage Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Making Threatening Statements against Family Members, Police Officers, Others

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced that Tyler Chance Bateman, 29, of Anchorage, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to serve four years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for using the internet to threaten Bateman’s parents, two Anchorage Police Department officers and their families, and shoppers at a local business.  After a three-day trial in October 2018, a federal jury convicted Bateman on all eight counts of threatening interstate communications. 

According to evidence presented at trial, on Feb. 4, 2018, Bateman left his home in Anchorage on a one-way airline ticket to New York City.  On Feb. 26, 2018, while in New York, Bateman created a text message thread to three people – two family members and a former employer, writing about why he left Alaska, his plans for making a living in New York, how those plans failed, and asked that someone buy him a ticket back to Alaska.  After none of the text message recipients offered to buy him a ticket, Bateman responded with a series of messages threatening to shoot, poison, and cut the victims.  One of the threats suggested that Bateman would commit a mass shooting.

Later that same day, Bateman threatened, via social media, to shoot and poison an Anchorage Police Officer and “several other people.”  Bateman also sent threats to the Police Officer’s personal social media account.  Further, Bateman sent threats to APD’s public Facebook page saying, among other things, “I am going to walk into a building with an AR15. I am going to hurt a lot of people.” Approximately seven minutes later, Bateman sent a message to the same APD account alleging that a specific address is where the Chief of Police lived.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Burgess remarked that “words matter,” noting that the defendant’s threats had a “profound impact” on the victims.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with assistance from the Anchorage Police Department (APD), conducted the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of this case.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonas M. Walker.