A Burnet County man, having ties to a church's volunteer safety team, was taken into custody on charges of staging a false threat scenario involving a shooting at the Church at the Epicenter. Jacob Wayne Tarver, aged 45, reportedly informed law enforcement of two "suspicious men" near the church premises, alleging one to bear a rifle. Subsequently, Tarver claimed the unleashing of gunfire, which supposedly drove the men to escape in a minivan, as noted in a statement obtained by Spectrum Local News. The Burnet County Sheriff's deputies, responding to an emergency call on October 6 at around 10:33 a.m., unearthed this harrowing narrative to be a figment of invention, devoid of actual peril to the church.
Following a thorough investigation, Tarver, a member of said volunteer security detail, admitted to fabricating significant incident details and misleading law enforcement, with the pursuit for the non-existent white minivan, that Tarver alleged to have fled, engaging deputies until the following morning. "The safety team member who had fired the shots admitted that he had fabricated significant details of this incident and had lied to law enforcement and others about this incident," the Burnet County Sheriff's Office declared, as written in a release shared by MySA. This confession dismantled the previously believed narrative of threat, illuminating no weapons aimed nor threats posed against the Church at the Epicenter or its affiliates.
Charges against Tarver include false report to induce an emergency response, classified as a Class A misdemeanor, and two counts of third-degree felonies encompassing tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and deadly conduct. Tarver now resides within the steel embrace of the Burnet County Jail, awaiting a magistrate's decision on bail terms. The enforcement's probe peeled away erroneous layers, concluding that no threats loomed over any public space, including Marble Falls ISD which had proactively swelled its police presence after the false alarm, as MySA reported.
Local authorities, while urging the community to stay keen on actual dangers, also beckoned the public to not dash into the valley of unfounded fears seeded by such fabrications. "Please remain alert for actual threats to public safety and continue to report suspicious activity to the proper authorities. That said, do not give in to the unfounded fears that are a result of this false story," a dispatch from the Burnet County Sheriff's Office emphasized, calling for a volley of truth to dismantle the web of falsehood that abetted fear and division in the community, according to statement released that was echoed by MySA.