Pair arrested after harassing pastor in Sutherland Springs
Two conspiracy theorists who have pushed the idea that the mass shooting at Sutherland Springs on Nov. 5 didn’t happen were arrested Monday at First Baptist Church, the site of the massacre, after the church’s pastor accused them of repeatedly harassing the community.
The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office declined to provide charging information on Robert Ussery, 54, who founded conspiracy website Side Thorn, and his partner Jodi Mann, 56, who is referred to as “Conspiracy Granny” online. The booking process was not complete Monday evening and no information would be made available until Tuesday, a supervisor there said.
Ussery “continually yelled and screamed and hollered and told me he was gonna hang me from a tree, and pee on me while I’m hanging,” said Frank Pomeroy, the pastor.
Pomeroy said he was in his car by the church when the pair approached the building, and he intervened when Mann began to write in large, loopy writing on a poster left for well-wishers to sign, “The truth shall set you free.”
The pair believe the church shooting was staged by accomplices of the government, though Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed there, knows better.
“He said, ‘Your daughter never even existed. Show me her birth certificate. Show me anything to say she was here,’” Pomeroy said. “I just told him there was enough evidence already visible, so if he chooses not to see that, how would I know he would believe anything else?”
Pomeroy said Ussery didn’t recognize him at first, but once he did, he started yelling at him. Meanwhile, Rod Green, a local resident and member of the congregation, called the police.
“He kept trying to bait us to do something dumb,” Pomeroy said.
The nationwide Victim Information Notification Everyday online database showed both Ussery and Mann were in custody Monday night. Wilson County Sherriff Joe Tackitt Jr. did not respond to repeated calls for comment. A sergeant at the Wilson County Jail said Tackitt told him the investigation was ongoing.
The whole time, Ussery had a camera on his chest, Pomeroy said, and Mann was also filming the interaction by his side.
The conspiracy website Side Thorn is full of homemade videos — taken from TV news reports and Ussery’s own camera — supposedly proving that the Sutherland Springs massacre, in which 26 congregants were killed, did not occur.
It also claims that the tragedies at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut; the Boston Marathon and the country music concert in Las Vegas are hoaxes devised by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The website’s homepage features a photo of a United States map with the words: “Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” It presents videos purporting to show Sutherland Springs residents practicing the shooting as “nothing but a staged drill.” There is audio of a victim’s family calling him and angrily demanding he leave her family alone.
The most recent post is a video of David Hogg, a student activist at the Florida high school, with the words “EXPOSED” superimposed on his forehead. The description: “100% proof of another staged drill.”
“Before talking to him today, I thought he was trying to play some angle,” Pomeroy said. “But I think he’s truly demented. I think he truly believes his own rhetoric. I can’t explain it.”
The conspiracy theorist was arrested during a White Lives Matter rally in Austin two years ago. He has a lengthy arrest history from the 1980s and 1990s for burglary, driving while intoxicated, assault and evading arrest. Online sources describe him as an Austin or Lockhart resident.
On a Sutherland Springs community Facebook page, members have been warning each other about Ussery and Mann. Some have brainstormed what they could do to get the pair to stop.
When Pomeory clambered out of his car at midday Monday, he recognized Ussery immediately and remained cool while Ussery screamed at him. When Ussery refused to leave, Pomeroy began to hope the pair would stay until deputies arrived.
“We’ve already had to deal with one person that lived in an alternate reality,” Pomeroy said, referring to Devin Kelley of New Braunfels, the 26-year-old gunman who, after killing the people in the church, killed himself.
“If it takes something happening before you get rid of these guys, then I’m just glad that this ‘something happening’ happened and nobody got hurt,” Pomeroy said. “Now let’s just pray it’s done.”
