A former Fort Carson civilian employee who boasted of being a domestic terrorist in text messages has been charged with making terrorist threats, including vowing to turn the Army base into “Fort Columbine.”
Douglas Kunz, a former butcher at Fort Carson’s commissary store, has been charged in federal court with disrupting interstate commerce with threats of explosions or fire. He has been released to a halfway house pending his Aug. 18 trial.
“It’s almost time for Ft Columbine,” Kunz allegedly wrote in one Facebook posting in which he complains about his mistreatment at work, according to federal records. His pleas for a transfer to New Mexico had gone unheeded.
FBI agents assigned to the Southern Colorado Joint Terrorism Taskforce began investigating Kunz after receiving complaints this spring from Fort Carson and the Air Force Academy, both in Colorado Springs.
The academy referral came after a librarian discovered pictures of a female whose arms and legs had been cut off, according to court records. Academy security officers determined that Kunz had transferred the images, likely from his cellphone.
The FBI did a criminal background search and discovered that Kunz had arrests dating back to 1989 for charges including disorderly conduct, assault, peeping, stalking and making threats.
When a military police investigator spoke with Kunz’s supervisor, she told him that Kunz’s Facebook page postings made employees feel their lives were in danger.
Fellow employee Raymond Gonzales wrote Kunz a message in January telling him he’d better watch what he posted on social media.
“I am evil in every way,” Kunz replied in a text message. “Why do you think I have 32 restraining orders on me. I respect no lives or people.”
Gonzales contacted military police, who interviewed Kunz. The suspect gave investigators a written response saying that his Facebook rants were his way to vent and that he “never wanted to hurt anyone.” He apologized to co-workers about the posts and told them he didn’t own a gun.
Kunz was barred from Fort Carson on March 31. Five days later he wrote a text to Gonzales saying he had a list and was headed to Las Vegas to take care of one problem.
“Ft. hood part2,” Kunz wrote. The FBI agent indicated the target was a co-worker who had transferred to an Army base in Nevada.
Kunz apparently was referring to a November 2009 mass shooting that left 13 dead at Fort Hood, Texas. His note came days before a second Fort Hood gunman killed three and injured 16 in another active-shooter incident.
On May 6, he wrote a text warning “all you ——- that have destroyed my life for no reason, just because you can, well Timothy mc veah (sic) will look like a rookie by the time I’m done with everybody. I did nothing wrong. Now the Asian brotherhood had a new domestic terrorist.”
His message referred to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. It’s apparent his message referred to the Aryan Brotherhood, which is a white supremacist prison gang, and not the Asian brotherhood.
In one text, he explained he was living in a friend’s garage after giving away all his furniture, books, stereo, records and CDs “to prepare for the end.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kirkmitchell