VTA bus driver allegedly threatened ‘some shooting’ more than vaccine mandate, law enforcement report states

A recently acquired sheriff’s report indicates that a South Bay bus driver promised very last thirty day period that there would be “some shooting” if he was fired for not assembly the Valley Transportation Authority’s vaccine mandate.

“If I get fired these days, you’re heading to see me on the information,” the driver, Douglas Lofstrom, informed a co-employee, according to an investigatory report into the June 17 incident. Lofstrom was arrested soon right after the alleged threats had been created, but regulation enforcement did not depth the reason at the time.

Lofstrom’s carry out — and its aftermath — have develop into a raging point of competition at the transit agency, the place a major union official has blamed company administration for positioning stress on Lofstrom by way of the vaccine mandate, and other workers are now expressing outrage that neither the union nor the company are using forceful motion in opposition to violent threats at a workplace subjected to a horrific mass taking pictures just more than a calendar year ago.

“We were being all warned there was going to be zero tolerance following the mass capturing,” said Lavon Gray, a 27-year veteran of the transit agency. “If they just can't fire this man, what’s heading to prevent the upcoming male?”

For his part, Lofstrom is denying the allegations of threats in a plea for donations on GoFundMe. But he acknowledges he manufactured “comments” more than the bus dispatch system hours forward of a disciplinary conference with VTA administration more than the vaccine mandate. Lofstrom also claimed on the GoFundMe site that he was vaccinated two times right before the conference to keep away from currently being fired.

Lofstrom, a 23-year VTA worker, faces an approaching disciplinary hearing where by his long term at VTA will be decided. The VTA would not say if it will fire Lofstrom. Carolyn Gonot, VTA’s basic supervisor, termed threats of violence “unacceptable” and claimed the company will reach a decision on his work immediately after “following the needed administrative course of action.”

The sheriff’s report claims that two staff, neither of whom is determined by name, instructed deputies of the threats.

Lofstrom’s alleged habits comes as the nation reels from a slew of mass shootings and as lawmakers debate about the finest way to tamp down gun violence. Very last year, VTA employee Samuel Cassidy went on a shooting rampage in May possibly 2021, killing nine coworkers. The massacre has sparked numerous lawsuits in which surviving loved ones personnel argue the transit company overlooked a collection of crimson flags to stop the capturing, like concerns that Cassidy could “go postal” right after he berated a woman coworker.

The same day that Lofstrom made threats to his colleagues, records show that he was served a gun violence restraining get by the sheriff’s section. A single of the state’s most important resources in striving to avert gun violence, a GVRO lets authorities to seize weapons and prohibit a person who has manufactured threats from obtaining a gun.

Nevertheless, data show that no weapons ended up seized at his Scotts Valley house in the vicinity of Santa Cruz. As portion of the get, Lofstrom is not allowed to personal any weapons or ammunition. At a July 7 hearing, a choose dominated that the restraining purchase ought to be prolonged right up until mid-September.

Lofstrom pleaded not guilty on June 21 to a misdemeanor rely of threatening crime with intent to terrorize and has been ordered to have on a GPS ankle bracelet and show up at psychological counseling as his situation tends to make it way by way of court. A listening to for the misdemeanor demand is scheduled for Aug. 29.

Achieved by phone on Monday, Lofstrom declined to comment and an attorney did not return a request for remark.

Without the need of detailing the character of the alleged threats, VTA union president John Courtney claimed before long right after the incident that “undue pressure” from the VTA administration’s vaccine mandate sparked Lofstrom’s threats.

In an job interview on Monday, Courtney at first reported that he is “fighting” for Lofstrom but then asked for his reviews to be corrected.

“What I’m declaring is that every citizen in this place has the correct to owing process,” claimed Courtney, who was formerly criticized for defending Cassidy in disagreements with management prior to his taking pictures rampage.

At the time of the alleged menace, about 50 VTA personnel, which includes Lofstrom, confronted doable terminations for refusing to get vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus by April 29. VTA, which was the very last major transit operator in the Bay Area to implement a vaccine mandate, has wielded the danger of firings to strengthen vaccinations identical to BART and Muni. On the other hand, some businesses, such as Caltrain and Los Angeles Metro — the largest transit company in the point out — have allowed screening alternatives for unvaccinated staff to stave off firings.

Gray, a longtime transit dispatcher, claimed she is also upset that the VTA has still to follow by way of with firing Lofstrom or any other unvaccinated personnel.

“People have retired (around the mandate), and now this guy goes and can make a risk, saying, ‘Fire me and I’m likely to shoot the spot up,’ ” claimed Gray. “John Courtney will come in and says, ‘Well, you men did that to him’ and (VTA administration) normally takes it.”