Since news of a too-real active-shooter drill at Catholic Charities of Omaha, authorities have wondered what kind of person would scare charity workers by pounding on windows, pointing a gun at them and firing blanks.
Turns out, prosecutors allege, it’s the kind of guy who would terrorize an underage girl for years.
Douglas County prosecutors recently filed 22 additional charges in a child sexual assault case against John A. Channels of Omaha.
Channels, 27, stands accused of 31 felonies that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. His attorney has said he maintains his innocence in both the child-rape case and the Catholic Charities terrorism case.
With 22 additional charges filed last week, prosecutors have now charged Channels with 12 counts of sexual assault of a child, 10 child pornography-related felonies and three assault counts in connection with a relationship they say he had with a girl from when she was 12 through her early teens.
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Those charges are on top of six charges Channels faces in the May 19 active-shooter drill he set up in which, prosecutors allege, he staged purported gunshot victims around the charity’s central Omaha location, chased workers and fired blanks into the air. Channels’ attorney, Erin Wetzel, said Channels planned the drill in conjunction with Catholic Charities leaders.
Catholic Charities directors have said they relied on the expertise of Channels, who had run a security company and said he wanted the active shooter drill to be life-and-death-like. Denise Bartels, executive director of Catholic Charities of Omaha, has said the charity regrets holding the training and has offered therapy to employees.
“Our intention in holding the training on May 19 was for the safety and security of our staff and to prepare for the sad reality that organizations face today,” she said in a prepared statement after The World-Herald broke news of the ordeal. “The health and safety of our staff, mentally, physically and spiritually, is our foremost concern.”
Omaha police allege Channels convinced Omaha Catholic Charities directors to allow him to show up May 19, masked, wearing black and brandishing a semiautomatic handgun, and fire “blanks” in the presence of unwitting employees. He also staged “gunshot victims,” smeared in fake blood, around the organization’s new office at 9223 Bedford Ave.
Unbeknownst to Channels or to Catholic Charities, Douglas County sheriff’s deputies were in the midst of an investigation into Channels’ involvement with the young girl.
According to an affidavit in that case:
In February, a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy questioned the girl after someone found possible child porn on an iPad and contacted Atlantic, Iowa, police. Police referred the case to authorities in Douglas County.
Sheriff’s Deputy Neal Klein arranged for an interview with the girl. She told deputies that she had known Channels since she was 10 and he was her “taekwondo instructor.”
Channels groomed her, she said — and first started preying on her when she was 12 or 13. They were driving, she said, and he made her touch his private parts.
The girl later thanked Channels in text messages for “cuddles” and “love.” Authorities allege he eventually coerced her into other sex acts.
Using Snapchat, a photo-based instant-messaging app, he had her send him pictures of herself barely clothed, in underwear and a bra.
The girl said she was unaware that Channels had saved the Snapchat photos on his iPad. She reviewed the pictures and told investigators that she was 12 or 13 in some of the pictures.
She said the two went on to being in a “quasi-dating relationship” from 2019 to 2021, even though she was 13, 14 or 15 at the time and he was in his mid-20s. Channels also is accused of assaulting the girl with a weapon and assault by strangulation, though the factual basis for those charges wasn’t detailed.
Channels faces more than 650 years in prison if convicted of preying on the underage girl; he faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted in the Catholic Charities case.
In addition to acknowledging to investigators that she was the minor in the lurid photographs, the girl also confirmed Channels’ Snapchat username:
Devastator1995.