A Eureka Springs man was taken into police custody on Thursday, Jan. 5, and later transported to a mental health facility in connection with telephone threats against two local hotels and a Fayetteville school and bank, according to police and court documents.
Daniel Alexis Roulet, 38, was booked into the Carroll County Detention Center in Berryville on Thursday, Jan. 4, on a charge of resisting arrest, according to the detention center’s intake log.
On Friday, Jan. 5, Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson signed an order directing the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office to transport Roulet to Vantage Point Behavioral Health Hospital in Fayetteville.
Eureka Springs police chief Billy Floyd issued a statement on Jan. 4, saying ESPD received a phone call from the sheriff’s office at approximately 5 a.m. that morning stating that the FBI had received an online threat from a local resident. The FBI had received a similar threat in December, Floyd’s statement said.
A Eureka Springs officer was dispatched to check on the resident’s welfare, Floyd’s statement says, and the resident advised he was not going to hurt himself and “the only reason he said what he said was because he wants the FBI to send a field agent to his house to check out his phone.”
At approximately 10 a.m., the Arkansas State Police advised Eureka Springs police they had received “a threat to life document” from the same resident, Floyd’s statement says.
At approximately 10:05 a.m., according to Floyd’s statement, ESPD received a call from an unknown male calling in a bomb threat to the Basin Park and Crescent hotels in Eureka Springs.
The phone number was registered to a Twilio account, Floyd’s statement says. Officers from the Berryville and Green Forest police departments and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office responded to the two hotels and confirmed no bombs or other explosive devices were present, Floyd’s statement says, and evacuation and safety protocols were activated throughout the city.
At approximately 10:07 a.m., Floyd’s statement says, the Fayetteville Police Department received a call from an unknown phone number making a bomb threat. The phone call was ultimately discovered to come from Twilio, according to Floyd’s statement. Several officers responded to Fayetteville High School and confirmed no bombs or other explosive devices were present there, Floyd’s statement says.
At approximately 10:22 a.m., Floyd’s statement says, the FBI field office in Little Rock contacted the Fayetteville police department and said a man had called and said there had been 10 masked subjects armed with guns at the Arvest Bank branch on the Fayetteville Square.
“More officers responded to Arvest Bank and located no evidence of an armed robbery,” Floyd’s statement says. “That phone number showed to belong to the resident.”
The Fayetteville Police Department learned that its Crisis Intervention Response Team had been having frequent phone calls with the resident over the previous week, Floyd’s statement says, and confirmed that the voice in the bomb threat call belong to the resident. GPS revealed the resident’s phone number to be in Eureka Springs.
At 11:15 a.m., according to Floyd’s statement, ESPD assistant chief Brian Jones received email confirmation of a valid order for immediate confinement and at 11:30 a.m., Floyd, Jones and Sgt. Paul Sebby were present at the resident’s home.
“The resident had barricaded himself inside his residence and was speaking to officers through a window,” Floyd’s statement says. “The resident eventually agreed to come outside and was taken into custody.”
Eureka Springs police had filed a petition for Roulet’s involuntary commitment on Wednesday, Dec. 3. In an affidavit and filed with the petition, Jones wrote that ESPD was initially contacted on Dec. 26 by a woman who wanted to file a report against Roulet for harassment.
Eureka Springs officers had multiple contacts with Roulet over the next several days, the affidavit says, and also were contacted by a friend of Roulet’s who was concerned about his welfare.
A warrant for Roulet’s arrest on one count of communicating a false alarm was issued Thursday, Jan. 4, in Washington County Circuit Court.
