Report: Teacher walked his property with rifle after setting car on fire

Published 8:43 am Friday, March 2, 2018

DALTON, Ga. — Eighteen months ago, authorities temporarily took guns away from the teacher arrested Wednesday after he shot through his classroom window at Dalton High School.  

 

In an August 2016 incident, the Dade County Sheriff’s Office said Randall Davidson set his own vehicle on fire and paced his property with a long gun in an apparent suicide attempt. Authorities reported at the time that Davidson sounded unstable during a 911 call.

 

In two other cases, police also indicated there was reason to believe Davidson suffered from apparent mental health concerns. 

 

Dalton Public Schools Director of Communications Pat Holloway said the school system was not aware of the Dade County incident. 

 

Davidson, 53, was not charged with a crime in the Dade County incident, which occurred at his home at 5129 Highway 11 South in Rising Fawn on Aug. 13, 2016.  The report said Davidson was taken to “Cornerstone hospital for a mental evaluation” after he set his 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander on fire. His son said Davidson was in the backyard with a rifle “watching the vehicle on fire” and “wouldn’t let him come near him or put the gun down.”

 

The son said Davidson “was not acting like himself.”

 

Davidson called 911 and said the vehicle was on fire. An incident report said, “911 thought at this time the incident could be a suicide attempt due to hearing the caller sound unstable while on the 911 phone.”

 

The deputy talked with Davidson’s teenage daughter who he noticed was “upset.” She said she saw her father walk out of the house with a rifle and he came back minutes later and she noticed the vehicle on fire. “She could tell something was wrong with her dad,” the report said. The daughter was transported to a safe location by the deputy. Davidson’s wife Lisa pulled into the driveway and the deputy told her to get into his car as well to drive to a “safe location due to her husband having a firearm and possibility being in an unstable state of mind.”

 

Lisa Davidson told deputies she and Randal Davidson had argued over money that morning. While she was at work, he sent her a text message telling her “he was going to prison.” She said she called him and asked “What happened?” and he told her again he was going to prison and hung up. She was leaving work when her daughter called her and told her the car was on fire.

 

The deputy was told Davidson’s son was with him in the backyard and “doing his best to have (him) to put the gun away.” The son told 911 that Davidson had “given the gun up” and the son had “removed the gun from the scene” and into an out building.

 

Several deputies went into the backyard and Davidson was identified and “detained for investigation.”  The son led one of the deputies to the rifle, an unloaded Russia 7.62. Lisa Davidson also turned over an Ithaca .22-caliber rifle and a Savage 7 rifle to the sheriff’s office “for safekeeping and investigation.”

 

Davidson was taken to Cornerstone. Sheriff Ray Cross said no charges were filed. The report noted that “all parties involved (family members) also advised at no point in the incident that … Davidson pointed, made threats to harm anyone with the firearm or other means.”

 

On Wednesday, the Dalton Police Department released two incident reports concerning Davidson, one from March 2016 and the other from January 2017.

 

In the March 2016 incident, Davidson “wanted to confess to having someone killed,” and told an officer and a detective about being part of a plot against a woman with whom he had had an “internet affair.” Police could not determine if the woman existed and they could not verify if any of the information Davidson gave them was true.

 

“It appears the subject may be delusional or have something else that had occurred that is causing him to have these thoughts,” the report said.

 

Davidson was taken to Hamilton Medical Center and police said they would follow up and contact his son.

 

In January 2017, the school resource officer at Dalton High School was told a staff member “might be missing,” according to another incident report. About two hours later, school staff said Davidson had been found on School Street near the intersection with April Street. When the officer arrived, he saw Davidson sitting on a curb being held up by two school staff members.

 

“Davidson was conscious and did not appear to be in any type of physical distress,” the officer wrote in the report. “I attempted to speak with Davidson as did staff members but no amount of stimulus would draw a response from Davidson.”

 

Davidson was again taken to Hamilton Medical Center.

 

Davidson remains in the Whitfield County jail without bond on charges of aggravated assault (gun), terroristic threats and acts, carrying a weapon in school safety zones (non-license), reckless conduct, disrupting a public school and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He waived his first appearance in Magistrate Court on Thursday and is expected to appear in Whitfield County Superior Court Tuesday.