Fort Calhoun Man Sentenced for School Threat

Acting United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Nathan Joseph Bonacci, age 21, of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, was sentenced on November 29, 2023, in federal Court in Omaha, Nebraska, for impeding or interfering with a federal officer. United States Magistrate Judge Susan M. Bazis sentenced Bonacci to 6 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Bonacci’s release from prison, he will begin a 1-year term of supervised release.

On February 10, 2022, Bonacci posted to the Discord app “I have an rpk chambered in 7.62 a 556 Ak74 and 2m1911s.  This Monday 2/14/22 I will drive my car (filled with 5k worth of amo) to Roosevelt Elementary School in Council Bluffs, IA (517 N 17^th Street, Council Bluffs, IA 51501) and I will kill as many people as I can find at 09:00 (9 am) @ everyone I will drive my blue Nissan Ultima (plate number [redacted] (nebraska plates))”. 

A user on the iFunny app came across the post and forwarded it via email to the principal of Roosevelt Elementary School, who then advised law enforcement. The FBI assigned a Special Agent to investigate the potential threat. The FBI investigation included obtaining emergency disclosures from Yahoo! and Twitter, which lead to identifying the IP address used to post the threat was maintained by Cox Communications. Additional investigation revealed the Cox Communications subscriber was Bonacci’s brother. The FBI Special Agent interviewed Bonacci’s brother, who recognized the username used to post the threat was Bonacci’s. Bonacci was subsequently located and interviewed.

Bonacci acknowledged he transmitted the communication but indicated he posted it to a group of his friends because he thought his friends would find it to be funny.  

Bonacci’s false threat impeded the assigned Special Agent from accomplishing his other assigned duties and interfered with his ability to work on legitimate investigations due to a need to determine if this was a valid threat to an elementary school.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.