A Thornton man is accused of threatening to kill the superintendent of Littleton Public Schools by injecting him with anthrax, according to the Littleton Police Department.

Officers cited Byron Clayton, 48, with harassment on Jan. 26. Police said he called Brian Ewert the day before and said he had “a syringe full of anthrax to inject into you,” according to a police report obtained by The Denver Gazette.

Clayton told investigators he “picked up the phone to just, to just vent, just to vent. And I hung up,” according to the report. The threat was made around the same time videos were posted online showing two unaccompanied minors being cleared to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic hosted by the school district. 

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Law enforcement became aware of the threat after the superintendent filed a complaint on Jan. 25. Officers met with the district’s security officials, who forwarded them the threatening voicemail.

Clayton is heard saying: “I heard you like to inject children with garbage and poison without their parental consent. I have a syringe full of anthrax to inject into you. You haven’t been inoculated which was forced into us when I was a previous military member, fortunately you’re not and you’re gonna (have) to do that. I have something special in a syringe for you to inject into you, it’s something very special. You will shake and you will no longer (breathe), you will die because you were injected, injected, injected, injected,” according to the report. 

Investigators met with Clayton’s mother, who described her son as being “very conservative and (having) anti-vac political views and follows Q-Anon.” She told investigators she was not aware of him owning any weapons, making threats or being involved in criminal activity, according to the report. 

Police interviewed Clayton on Jan. 26 while he was working. At first, Clayton denied making any threats or calling school officials and even referred to the district as Larimer Public Schools, according to the report.

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When detectives asked to see Clayton’s call history, they realized that much of his call history was deleted. Clayton told investigators he believes all of his calls delete after 24 hours.

When investigators told Clayton they would obtain a warrant, he acknowledged that he knew of the vaccine clinic hosted by the school district and the threatening phone call.

“I picked up the phone and made a call,” Clayton told investigators. “I was pissed. I don’t know where any of your schools are, I don’t know who these people are at all, I don’t know. I just picked up the phone to just, to just vent, just to vent. And I hung up.”

This wasn’t the first threat directed toward a local school district. On Monday, the Cherry Creek school board met in a secured location after someone made a bomb threat.

In December, several school districts, including Denver Public Schools, were monitoring threats after a social media challenge encouraged students to bring weapons to school.

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The Denver Police Department also announced it was investigating “numerous” threats toward Denver East High School over an eight-month period. 

Brighton High School’s homecoming dance was postponed due to shooting threats in October and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office investigated similar threats the following month.