A suspect in the attack on an Oklahoma City television station’s weather radar and satellite transmission dishes has been charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor.
Anthony Tyler Mitchell, 39, of Oklahoma City, “has a history of damaging others’ properties,” police reported in a court affidavit.
He was charged Thursday, July 17, in Oklahoma County District Court. He remained in jail Saturday.
The incident on July 6 and 7 at News 9 attracted national media attention because a group called Veterans on Patrol claimed responsibility. Founder Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer told News 9 that weather radars in Oklahoma were being targeted because they were “weather weapons” for the military.
Meyer told The Arizona Republic on July 10 that he and those in his movement were doing nothing wrong. Meyer lived in Arizona before moving to Oklahoma.
“Eliminating directed energy weapons that are embedded in our infrastructure is not going to harm a single American,” he said. “It will take away a loaded weapon pointed at the American people.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Veterans on Patrol an anti-government militia and Meyer a Christian nationalist who encourages vigilantism.
Meyer has not been charged over the property destruction at News 9, a CBS affiliate.
Mitchell is charged in the first felony count with damaging equipment in a critical infrastructure facility. Prosecutors allege he cut satellite transmission lines used to receive programming from CBS and national emergency messages.
The maximum punishment for that offense is 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
He is charged in the second felony count with malicious injury or destruction of property. He is accused of using a hammer to damage an electric meter box and a transfer case from a backup generator to knock out power to the weather radar for more than 11 hours.
Police reported the TV station’s engineering director estimated the damage and repairs exceeded $7,000.
Mitchell was charged with a misdemeanor count of entering with the intent to commit a felony. Police reported he climbed a 10-foot metal fence to cut off power to the weather radar and then went into another fenced area to cut the satellite transmission lines.
Police reported in the court affidavit that Mitchell was identified as a suspect from News 9 surveillance video.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed the criminal charge. Court records on the case do not yet show an attorney for Mitchell.
He also is facing a misdemeanor charge of violation of a protective order.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Criminal charge filed over property damage at OKC television station