BRATTLEBORO, Vermont — A threatening phone call aimed at elementary schools in this southeastern Vermont town set off a multi-day, three-state investigation that ended with a Connecticut man in custody in New York. Jacob D. Cunningham of Colchester, Connecticut, was taken into custody by the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office and faces a charge of making a terroristic threat, the Brattleboro Police Department said in an update released Friday, November 13, reported by My Keene Now and Magic 96.7. He was being held on $500,000 bond, police said.
Source: My Keene Now, Nov. 13, 2026
The Brattleboro Police Department said it began investigating on the morning of Tuesday, November 10, after receiving a report that an individual had threatened violence against schools in the area. The call was directed at local elementary schools, according to police — the youngest children in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, the district that runs Brattleboro's public schools.
Source: Magic 96.7, Nov. 13, 2026
Extra officers at the school doors
While the investigation unfolded, police coordinated with the Vermont State Police and officials from the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, and additional officers were assigned to area schools. That stepped-up presence is the visible part of a school-threat response: schools stay open or close on the district's judgement, parents are told through district channels, and officers are placed where a threat, if it were real, would arrive. Police have not, in the reporting available so far, described the exact words of the call, said whether any weapon was found, or identified a motive — and none of those gaps should be filled by guesswork.
How the trail led to New York
Investigators eventually identified Cunningham as the suspect and determined he was in New York, police said. The arrest itself was made not by Brattleboro officers but by the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office — the county in far western New York, on Lake Erie, hundreds of miles from Brattleboro. Brattleboro police directed requests for additional information about Cunningham's arrest and charges to the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, which is the agency holding him.
The Brattleboro Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division continues to investigate the case, police said. The charge against Cunningham is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Background: Brattleboro and a call that crosses state lines
Brattleboro is a town of roughly twelve thousand people in Windham County, in Vermont's southeastern corner on the Connecticut River, minutes from both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Colchester, Cunningham's home town as given by police, is in Connecticut — a different state from the one threatened, and the arrest added a third, New York. That geography is now routine in school-threat cases: a phone call can be placed from anywhere, traced across carriers and state lines, and answered by whichever agency finds the suspect first. It is also why three agencies in three states appear in a case that began with a single call on a Tuesday morning.
Why schools treat every call this seriously
American schools and police departments operate on a hard-learned rule: a threat against a school is investigated as if it could be real until investigators establish otherwise. The cost of that rule is disruption — officers pulled to school doors, parents alarmed, children who notice the extra uniforms — and departments accept that cost because the alternative error is unforgivable. In this case, police say, the response ran for days, involved a state police force and a school district, and ended in an arrest in another state, which is the full machinery a single threatening call can set in motion.
What the charge means — and what is not yet known
Making a terroristic threat, as the charge is reported, is the allegation that a person threatened violence in a way intended to cause fear or disruption; the precise statute, court and wording will be matters for the charging documents in the jurisdiction that prosecutes the case. Police have not publicly explained, in the reporting so far, how Cunningham was identified, what evidence links him to the November 10 call, or whether further charges are expected. Those are questions the continuing Brattleboro investigation and the New York custody process will have to answer on the record.
What happens next
Cunningham remains held on $500,000 bond in New York, according to police, with questions about his arrest directed to the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office. The next steps — a court appearance in New York, and any decision about where the case is prosecuted — have not been announced in the reporting available so far. In Brattleboro, the Criminal Investigations Division's work continues, and the district and police will decide how long the stepped-up school presence lasts. For parents, the official position is the one police gave on Friday: a suspect is in custody, and the investigation is not over.