An Augusta County man who shouted death threats at people on their way to the April 19 anti-Ben Cline protest in Downtown Staunton was arrested on an unrelated charge and quickly released, according to Staunton Police.
Ryan Nicholas Patton, 35, was arrested on an outstanding warrant from Augusta County General District Court, a police department spokesman told us on Thursday.
The warrant was for failure to appear in court on a Class 1 misdemeanor assault and battery charge lodged against him on March 3.
A review of Patton’s rap sheet on the Virginia Judiciary Online Case Information System shows a troubling history of alleged offenses, with a long run of nolle prosequis, and convictions in assault and battery cases in 2018 and 2021 and a 2024 public-intoxication case.
Patton is also facing felony drug charges in Harrisonburg-Rockingham General District, with the next hearing in that case scheduled for June 10, according to the court system database.
So, it was this kind of guy, with a history of violent acts, who was caught on video at 12:50 p.m. on April 19 walking up a street near the Augusta County Courthouse that had been blocked off by police for security reasons, shouting obscenities at people who were making their way to the political protest.
“He was screaming, basically, you’re going to get yourself killed with this LGBTQ BS, I’m going to kill you, locked and loaded,” a bystander who reached out to us to share the video, and asked not to be named, out of fear of possible retaliation.
Note: we’re sharing the video here with this story through a short from our YouTube channel to further protect the identity of the bystander.
Come after me, basically, not the person who had to endure the insults, and then stepped up to share with us what happened.
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The 38-second video, if you click and watch, corroborates the bystander, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, on what went down.
Patton, carrying a large black bag, can be heard on the video shouting, as he walked up the street:
“Shut the fuck up. You’re going to get yourself killed with your queer-ass LGBT bullshit. I’m going to kill you, I promise you. I’m locked and loaded. I’ll kill you.”
At this point, according to the bystander, a police car, with blue lights flashing, pulled up at the scene at the corner of Augusta Street and Frederick Street, and an officer can be heard on the video directing Patton to “get out of the road,” then telling Patton to “come here, I said, come here.”
“I don’t know if the officer heard what I heard,” the bystander said.
After stopping the video, the bystander saw the officer follow Patton into the parking lot around the corner, and later, the officer told the bystander he was just focused on telling Patton to get out of the road.
About a half-hour later, a friend of the bystander made two calls to 911, logged at 1:17 p.m. and 1:20 p.m., about Patton, who was continuing with his concerning behavior.
It was at this point, a police department spokesman told us today, that Patton was arrested, not for the death threats, but for the charge related to the missed court date.
Patton was processed at the police department and released around 3 p.m., and was photographed a half-hour later sitting outside a business on Statler Boulevard.
I shared the information about the arrest and quick release with the bystander who had brought the episode involving Patton to our attention.
“That makes me furious, honestly,” the bystander said.
I’m right there with him.
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Chris Graham
