A firefighter who lost his job in a dispute about his use of medical marijuana has been arrested after threatening to shoot officials, including a city mayor, in a rant in which he used the phrase “just like Charlie Kirk.”
Thomas Eccleston appeared in court in Waterbury, Connecticut, on Wednesday and was subsequently held on $400,000 bond. He faces multiple charges, including second-degree harassment, first-degree threatening with a firearm, second-degree threatening with physical violence, first-degree harassment involving physical threats, and second-degree harassment, according to local reports.
“He mentioned Charlie Kirk in shooting political officials, and he is threatening political violence, which is completely unacceptable in our society,” said Waterbury prosecutor Don Therkildsen.
Therkildsen said the threats targeted Waterbury’s Mayor Paul Pernerewski, Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo, as well as other members of the Waterbury police and fire departments, and staff at City Hall.
Eccleston was arrested in California, where he resides, and subsequently extradited to Waterbury. He is expected to appear in court again next month, according to The CT Insider.
He lost his job as a fire lieutenant in 2018, following a positive test for marijuana during a random drug screening, records show. The firefighter said that he began use medical marijuana to deal with his PTSD.
This violated a “last-chance agreement” he had signed in 2015 to avoid termination following a domestic violence arrest. This agreement incorporated a binding random drug testing component and made no distinction between legal and illegal marijuana use.
Eccleston appealed his dismissal in a court hearing as recently as July 2025, during which he was held in contempt of court due to an outburst. The CT Insider reported at the time that the judge refused to punish Eccelston, calling him a “sad person,” who could not control himself.
In that appeal, it was noted that Eccleston had been required not to contact city officials and to refrain from using ethnic slurs.
Speaking about the contempt charge, he told the outlet, “I’m trying to make a lot of noise. What is happening is the city is trying to hush this up and I am trying to blow the lid off it, and I had to bring it to a contempt charge to get that done because they weren’t taking this stuff seriously.”
At one stage in the legal process, Eccleston offered to settle his wrongful termination lawsuit in exchange for a settlement of $13.7 million and his reinstatement. In 2022, Eccleston secured a legal victory over the city when it was ruled that he was eligible to collect unemployment benefits.
The incident closely follows a strikingly similar case of threatened violence in the same state, and threatening some of the same officials.
On Monday, Robert Pabich, 43, of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, had four rifles and “military-grade” ammunition seized by local police, and has been charged with intimidation, stalking, and disorderly conduct, after saying city officials “need bullets shot directly into their faces.”
Amid heightened concerns about political violence in the U.S., the arrest came after Pabich posted a comment online calling for State Senator Matt Lesser and nine other Democratic lawmakers to be shot dead, after they attended the “No Kings” protests earlier this month.
“Take note of this picture. Every one of these pieces of trash need bullets shot directly into their faces … Just like they did to Charlie Kirk,” Pabich wrote below a picture of the group at the state Capitol on 18 October.
