Spokane City Hall was placed on 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 threatened Mayor Lisa Brown.

Chesed B. Johnson, 46, sent an email to council members Monday threatening to kill himself at the hands of a police officer. He also posted that email in full on the City Council’s Facebook page, writing that “Tonight a veteran will die in front of city hall.”

“Please cancel the town hall meeting,” the email said. “I’m going to have the police kill me in front of city hall tonight.”

City Hall was placed on lockdown, with employees allowed to exit the building under 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 filings related to threatening Woodward and former Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, a case that evolved in recent months when Johnson began sending threatening emails to Brown and the 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 stretched from 2020, when Woodward began his term as mayor, to 2023.

According to the documents, Johnson began emailing Woodward about grievances he had against the Spokane Police Department. It turned into emails claiming he was outside Woodward’s home, would kidnap her, threaten to destroy her husband’s business, look up the addresses of her family members to “despise” her and make her “pay.”

Johnson was convicted in 2022 of harassing Woodward, placed on probation and issued a no-contact order while he completed mental health treatment. Last November, according to court documents, Johnson approached Woodward at a Christmas tree lit up downtown as she was leaving. She allegedly told him, “I’m going to make you listen to me,” and Woodward got scared, so she asked a bystander to walk her the rest of the way back to her car and called the police.

When law enforcement officers 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 was arrested several hours later without incident.

The documents say he also had a history of threatening police, including Meidl.

“Spokane will have 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 record as of 2019 was extensive, mostly for harassment, stalking and threats.

In 2019, Johnson threatened to commit a mass shooting at Wells Fargo, where he was fired after being accused of harassing a co-worker.

Johnson pleaded guilty to criminal harassment for the Wells Fargo threat and was sentenced to 131 days in jail. He was accepted into court for mental health offenses but was dropped from that diversion after allegedly cyberstalking and posting online messages in violation of a protection order.

He later faced felony charges for harassing and cyberstalking former co-workers, particularly a female co-worker who refused to go on a date with Johnson, according to court documents.

Johnson was charged in November 2021 with threatening to kidnap Woodward or otherwise harm her family; that case was resolved with probation requiring Johnson to complete mental health treatment. Johnson was indicted in 2022 for threatening to kill Meidl and a police department officer, to which Johnson pleaded guilty to criminal mischief.

Johnson was again accused of threatening city police officers later in 2022 and was convicted of cyberstalking in 2023.

The most recent allegations against Johnson began in late 2023, with additional threats against Meidl and Woodward. He was sentenced to seven months in prison and in July ordered to start treatment as the case was referred to the mental health tribunal.

In an interview Monday, Woodward said he felt the system broke down in Johnson’s case and that he didn’t get the mental health care or behavioral monitoring he needed. When Johnson was released in July, Woodward said he expected he would be sent to a home that would provide mental health services and prevent him from committing further crimes; instead, she said he was released to a downtown motel.

“You have a pattern here, and this individual is not getting the help they need, and something bad is going to happen,” Woodward said.

Woodward declined to be interviewed when The Spokesman-Review reported on Johnson’s harassment of the former mayor in January. She said she agreed to an interview Monday to draw attention to the systematic failures that allowed Johnson to continue making threats.

“I’m just 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 of the people who need care.”

By September, prosecutors had asked Johnson to be removed from the mental health court system after he was indicted on new charges of cyberbullying and phone harassment for sending Brown messages asking her to meet up or making threats that he will confront her in public. After City Hall notified police of this communication, Johnson wrote another email expanding on his earlier threats.

After chastising Brown for not meeting him, Johnson wrote: “You have just made the biggest mistake of your life.”

Despite these communications, Johnson was held 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 to know you have access to the courts… I’ll go all out against you.”

He signed that email “Your Enemy”.

A judge signed a warrant for his arrest on October 29.

Johnson emailed Hall the same day, describing himself as a “100% disabled veteran with PTSD and a safety that has shortened greatly over the years.”

Johnson recently applied for a position on the Spokane Human Rights Commission, but his application was denied because of a restraining order, commission chairman Anwar Peace said.