The Chico Police Department arrested 37-year-old Dallas James Marsh on the morning of Sept. 25 after receiving information that he had allegedly threatened to commit a mass shooting. CPD received information that Marsh was staying at the Super 8 hotel on Manzanita Avenue, where a SWAT team took him into custody around 8:50 a.m. 

Chico Police Communications Specialist Kelly DeLeon told KRCR that CPD received a tip from a person from out of state on Sept. 19 that Marsh “was making threats against a Chico resident.”  While investigating the threats, CPD discovered “he was planning a copy-cat shooting, referencing the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.” 

On Sept. 28, District Attorney Mike Ramsey told Action News Now that Marsh had planned to kill local people on his “hit list” before traveling to Las Vegas to carry out a mass shooting. This “hit list” included Marsh’s father, local police officers, his former neighbor and unidentified individuals. 

Marsh is booked at Butte County Jail without possibility of bail on state felony charges of making criminal death threats or threats of inflicting grave bodily injury. 

After he was arrested, he is alleged to have made more death threats against officers, and to have attacked one officer with a table, leading to additional charges being filed against him. 

Marsh, a resident of Oroville, has posted multiple images on his public Facebook profile brandishing firearms, including a photo that was posted on Sept. 17. 

Marsh is a veteran of the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, also called “Rakkasans,” and was discharged after being wounded during his second tour of duty in Iraq.

On his Facebook profile, he describes his own service, saying that he “Joined the U.S. Army as an Infantryman in 2004 […] and lived in the sandbox for 2.5 years.”

Marsh was arrested and charged with multiple felonies in 2019, and was convicted and sentenced to prison for three years, eight months on charges related to violent threats against his neighbor.

In 2021, he was paroled to a mental hospital, from which he was released at an unknown time. In a Facebook post dated May 13, Marsh wrote “I’m baaack!”

Marsh was arraigned Sept. 28 and is set to enter a plea at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 29.

Christopher Hill can be reached at [email protected] or @Commiechu on Twitter.