Man accused of threatening JCPS superintendent over mask mandate shares his side of the story

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio was allegedly threatened by a man with a gun who was upset over the mask mandate, WAVE 3 News Troubleshooters have learned.

The alleged incident occurred Monday outside the VanHoose Education Center, the JCPS headquarters, according to court documents.

Bradley Linzy, 43, of Louisville, told WAVE 3 News the citation doesn’t tell the full story and that many things were taken out of context.

Linzy said he went to VanHoose after calling the JCPS office multiple times to try to talk to someone about the district’s mask mandate.

Linzy, who has two daughters in JCPS, told WAVE 3 News he is concerned for his 10-year-old daughter who is on the autism spectrum.

“With these mask mandates, and her being in a mask, and all of her peers being in a mask, it makes it doubly hard for her to understand people’s emotions,” he said.

The documents state Linzy went inside the building and started arguing with the staff about the mask mandate when they asked him to leave. The citation report claims Linzy refused multiple times before he finally left.

Linzy argues that is not true.

“When I first walked in I turned my camera on,” he said. “It’s about a 24-minute video. At no point did they ask me to leave.”

Linzy shared the video with WAVE 3 News. It shows Linzy’s camera pointed at the ground as he walks into VanHoose, and asks the woman at the front desk if Dr. Pollio is in the building. Throughout the 24-minute video, Linzy was not asked to leave. He was told, however, that he should not be recording and that they were going to close the building soon for the day. It’s unclear what occurred after the video recording stopped or how long he was in the building. He said he was only asked to leave the building once, when they were going to close for the day.

“I left quietly and that was the end of it,” he said. “I pulled around back hoping, again, that I would find Dr. Pollio coming out, and sure enough he did come out.”

The citation states school security officers found Linzy outside VanHoose in his car and he admitted to having a gun in between his front seat.

“(The security officer) was like ‘Do you have any weapons on you?’” Linzy said. “And I said, ‘Yes I have a constitutional carry,’” Linzy said. “He said, ‘Where it is it?’ I said, ‘It’s under my seat. I’m not a harm to anyone. I’m not (going to) hurt anybody, (going to) reach for it or grab it or nothing like that.’ And he was like, ‘That’s all I wanted to know,’ and that was it. It was just a calm conversation.”

Linzy was in the back of the building in his vehicle when he noticed Pollio leaving the building, and then got out of the vehicle before going after Pollio, according to the report.

Linzy is accused of telling Pollio “Life is f****** over and career as you know it” while “aggressively approaching” him into the VanHoose building.

“That’s not what I said,” Linzy told WAVE 3 News, adding that he said it as they were in their cars getting ready to leave the parking lot. “I said your life is over as it pertains to your career, sir. I said I have enough of a following that I could make this very difficult for you, etc. etc. kinda thing. I didn’t, I wasn’t threatening the man’s life or anything like that.”

The citation states Linzy also allegedly yelled, “You don’t know what I am capable of.”

Linzy told WAVE 3 News that comment was made to the security officer when he was asked if he had any weapons.

“I was agreeing with him,” Linzy said. “He was like I have to ask, I’m just doing my job. And I was like I understand that. I said you don’t know what I’m capable of. I get it. That’s what that was about.”

Linzy was charged with terroristic threatening and disorderly conduct. He was not arrested, but cited to appear in Jefferson District Court on July 26.

WAVE 3 News learned Wednesday that Linzy has more than 120,000 followers on YouTube, with his most popular video getting more than 1 million views. His main channel, The Guitologist has dozens of videos about guitars and other instruments. A second YouTube page that appears to belong to Linzy is titled The Guitologist 2. That channel has more than 15,000 subscribers and includes videos in which Linzy shares his political views.

WAVE 3 News reached out to JCPS for comment. A JCPS spokesperson said, “At this time this matter is still part of an ongoing investigation and we can’t provide any further comment.”

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