After death threat to Wichita mayor, Gov. Kelly seeks toning down of anti-mask fervor

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is urging Kansans to tone down anti-mask rhetoric after Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple received a death threat from a man apparently opposed to the city’s COVID-19 restrictions.

“It’s imperative that we turn down the rhetoric — the anti-science, anti-mask rhetoric,” Kelly said Monday. “We see what’s going on, what it has done here with the mayor of Wichita and elsewhere such as Michigan.”

Michigan is where members of a self-appointed militia group are facing charges that they plotted to kidnap and try Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The F.B.I. and Michigan law enforcement have arrested 13 men in connection with a domestic terrorism plot.

“This is serious, and we all need to get on the same page and work together,” Kelly said.

Meredith Dowty, 59, a retired Wichita firefighter and local musician who performs under the stage name “Cathead,” was arrested late Friday and remains in jail in lieu of $50,000 bond, said Dan Dillon, spokesman for District Attorney Marc Bennett.

Police will present the evidence in the case to prosecutors Tuesday morning and they’ll decide whether to formally charge him. Dowty could be arraigned as early as Tuesday afternoon, Dillon said.

Police have said Dowty could face a charge of criminal threat in relation to a series of text messages threatening Whipple that were received by another city official.

Whipple said the messages sought to get his home address and contained a detailed threat against his life, because of his role in passage of an ordinance requiring protective face masks in public as part of the effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Whipple said the messages, which were read to him, cited “masks and tyranny” as a motive to kill him. He said the messages referred to him by the code name “Wilma.”

“He said he was going to kidnap me and slash my throat and he needed my address because I needed to see the hangman — me and everyone who, something about tyranny,” Whipple said.

In addition to the city’s mask mandate, which is set to expire Wednesday, the suspect also complained “about not being able to see his mother because of COVID restrictions on elderly homes,” Whipple said.

Dowty’s relationship with his mother has at times been rocky.

In November 2010, she filed with the district court for a protective order against him. In that filing, she said he had a list of people he planned to kill.

Dowty “becomes very angry, makes threats if I dare tell what he is doing,” his mother wrote in the court filing. “He lists 4 or 5 on on his list to kill. But I must go first before he takes 4 or 5 down, meaning he is killing me first.”

In 2012, Dowty’s ex-wife filed for a protective order for herself and a minor child living with her. That filing alleged that after their marriage was annulled, Dowty sought to get her back and stalked her at her church, her gym, the airport when she was returning from a trip and while she was riding her bike.

Dowty has a reputation in the local music community for strong anti-government views.

The side window on his station wagon is hand-lettered with the phrase “Remember Waco,” an apparent reference to the six-week-long standoff in 1993 between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidian cult.

The siege began with a gun battle that killed four agents and six Davidians and ended when agents stormed the Davidian compound which caught fire, killing 76 inside. It has been a rallying point for militants ever since and was a motive behind the deadly Oklahoma City federal building bombing two years to the day after the siege ended.

Bumper stickers on the vehicle include an InfoWars decal. InfoWars is a website owned by radio personality and online conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The website and Jones have promoted several bizarre conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and an attempted takeover by the “Deep State.”

Jones and InfoWars have been banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but are available in the Wichita area through local programming. The Alex Jones Show airs every Sunday night on a local AM radio station, KQAM. InfoWars broadcasts on local television 24 hours a day via KCTU channel 5, which is available to anyone with an antenna.

Lettering on the rear window of Dowty’s station wagon reads: “Zero Constitutional force of law. WAKE UP! AMERICA!”

“Wake up” is a slogan sometimes associated with QAnon, an anti-government movement advancing a conspiracy theory that various prominent Democratic politicians, business leaders and Hollywood celebrities are involved in a mammoth international child sex trafficking conspiracy.

Its members write and speak of a “great awakening” when their conspiracy theories will be validated and “the storm,” when the people they accuse will be rounded up and arrested by President Donald Trump.

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 4:58 PM.