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Man shot by marshals threatened to shoot up courthouse, girlfriend feared him becoming ‘more unstable,’ records show

BETHEL TWP., Clark County — The man U.S. Marshals shot and killed while serving a warrant in Bethel Twp. Friday morning had threatened to shoot up the Greene County courthouse and had previously made statements he’d get into a shootout with police, newly obtained records show.

Douglas C. Barton, 50, shot at U.S. Marshals at a home on North Hampton Road and was killed after one of the responding agents fired back.

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The U.S. Marshals Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team was attempting to arrest Barton for making threats to Judge David Stucki, a retired Stark County family court judge, who had handled a portion of Barton’s divorce that started back in 2013.

On April 1, the Stark County Sheriff’s Office in northeast Ohio “was made aware of a threat notification” involving Barton.

“A threat had been received from the suspect that he was going to go to the Greene County courthouse and shoot it up,” an incident report said. That threat prompted the sheriff’s office to notify Stucki, due to him having presided over Barton’s case.

Deputies then spoke to Barton’s girlfriend, who told them Barton had told her around 6 a.m. to “let everyone in Greene County know that I’m coming for them.”

The next day, Barton’s girlfriend and owner of the house where Friday’s shooting happened, petitioned for a protection order against Barton.

“(She) was granted that protection order and due to the suspect’s volatile history, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office was attempting to serve the order by first making telephone contact with the suspect as to prevent putting any type of hostile confrontation,” an investigative report read.

It’s not clear if the protection order was ever served to Barton prior to his death Friday.

Barton’s girlfriend had told deputies Barton “had prior military training and that he had outfitted a dirtbike mount for an AR type rifle,” the report read. “They also had knowledge that the suspect has numerous firearms and has made statements over the years that he would get into a ‘shootout with police’.”

According to the report, Barton’s girlfriend also heard him make statements that “he would kill everyone involved in his court case and that he has planned several times on ‘making everyone pay for the hell that they put him through.’”

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“She also advised that he had strategically placed guns throughout the residence,” the report read. “She believes the suspect is becoming more unstable and that is the reason for her fear.”

The girlfriend also said Barton had all the home addresses for the judges who were assigned to his divorce.

Stucki told detectives that Barton had been “very volatile” before and had even shown up at judge’s homes.

“He advised the suspect does have extensive knowledge in munitions and at one point, the suspect had purchased a large amount of PVC pipe and electric motors, which could be considered as bomb making materials,” deputies said in the report.

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