Larry Dawson, the Antioch man wounded by U.S. Capitol Police on March 28 after brandishing a BB gun at a security check, left a scattered paper trail detailing his fraught life in the decades between his high school graduation in Columbia, Tenn., and the shooting at the Capitol Visitors Center.
Even in the areas of the community where the 66-year-oldhas established connections, he remains an elusive character.
Public records fill in some of the unknowns about Dawson’s life. Faith tied his past to his present. The self-styled minister has registered a church with the state since 1972. As a high school student, Dawson aspired to work in the funeral rites business, he served in the U.S. Army’s mortuary service and then struck out on his own in the industry. In the midst of Dawson facingharassment charges and court-ordered mental health treatment, one of his daughters died at age 25. He switched careers as he futilely worked to renew his funeral directors license.
His last unsuccessful attempt to get re-licensed was Aug.12, 2014.
A little more than a year later Dawson was in Washington D.C., being ejected and charged after declaring himself a "prophet of God" in the U.S. House chamber.
Big dreams, good heart
Over the past four decades, Dawson would sporadically visit Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Columbiawhere his late mother worshiped, said the Rev. Alvin Anderson, pastor of the church. Dawson often brought small gifts and donations with him, and even drove a vanfull of foreign workers in Nashville to services at thechurch.
“He’s got a good heart,” Anderson said.
Dawson stopped by the church about sixmonths ago, but Anderson didn’t have a chance to talk with him and he wasn’t aware of Dawson'schurch or efforts advocating for increasing the minimum wage, apparently a motivation for Dawson's presence in Washington at the time of the shooting.
Anderson calledDawson intelligent and a religious man. He said Dawsonwas always making big plans, but they often didn’t pan out or eventually fell apart.
"He always talked about wanting to do these things and had these big goals, but they never really ... made it to the surface," Anderson said.
Dawson's sisterPamela Royster Coleman, who lives in Nashville,gave a prepared statement to The Tennessean on Saturday evening about her brother.
"Weare prayerful that Larry will continue to get better," she said in the statement. "Larry Dawson is a father, grandfather, brother, uncleand friend to many. We are thankful that no one got seriously injured. We are asking for privacy at this time as we try to figure out this situation."
Court cases, death in family
About an inch-and-a-half-thick court file from the Williamson County Circuit Criminal Courtdetails Dawson's inappropriate correspondence in the early 2000s with an underage teen girl.
In 2001Williamson County Schoolsfired Dawson, who worked as a bus driver, over the correspondence. In April 2001, Franklin police arrested Dawson on an intimidation charge after he sent letters to two school employees after he was let go from the district. This behavior would eventually lead to harassment charges.
He wrote the girl a letterin 2002 and was arrested for it, but the charge was retired and he was ordered not to contact her for a year.
Weeks after the order expired in 2003, Dawson wrote the girl again and was arrested.
Before he wrote the girl again, he also filed a pro se lawsuit against the federal government to have public schools practice prayers and sought $33.3 million in damages for violations of students' rights and free speech.
In the midst of it all, Dawson would suffer a personal loss when his 25-year-old daughter died in 2002, according to death and obituary records. He wrote about her death in a Sept. 20, 2004, letter to Judge Russ Heldmanrequesting a bond hearing and a new attorney.
Dawson was eventuallyfound not guilty by reason of insanity that year. Dawson was diagnosed as delusional and spent aboutthreemonths in 2005 at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute for inpatient treatment, andunderwent mandatory outpatient treatment upon his release.
Among thepages of the court file is a handwritten letter dated March 8, 2002, that wasmailedto the victim, Dawson says that she couldhear him four days a week on gospel radio stationWMRB 910 AM.A business card listing Dawsonas a radio announceris attached to the envelope in the court file.
Dawson, who switchesbetween cursive andprinted writing in the letter,refers to himself as a prophet and tells the victim that she has conceived a child through a virgin birth,drawing comparisons to Jesus' conception story.
A gospel DJ
"God has placed you in a position that will be admired by 'movie stars and speciallyall women of the Earth' There will not be a woman to compare with you today. For it is God's promise to you. Your service to God he shall greatly reward you.Thus saith the Lord God," the letter stated.
At the time, Trent Ogilvie served asgeneral manager of the Columbia, Tenn., station, which has a new owner today, and heremembers Dawson working at the station in the early 2000s for about a year. Dawson was a DJ, playing spiritual and inspirational music, and he said prayers on the air.
"He was always kind of a kindhearted, kind of a happy, free-spirited guy," saidOgilvie, who lives in Columbia.
Dawson spoke to the Rev. Anderson about the harassment case and asked him to help raise money for his legal defense, which Anderson declined to do.Dawsonbelieved God was testing him, but Anderson said he tried to explain to Dawson that God would not test him and not tell anyone else about it.
"I said, 'You're trying to say that you and this girl is supposed to get married.' I said, 'but she don't agree with it. Her parents don't agree with it, and you're the only one who said that,' " Anderson said. "I said, 'God doesn't do anything out of confusion. There's no confirmation.' "
Ogilvie didn't know Dawson before he started working at the station, but he did know of his family in the way thatmost people know one another in a small town.Dawson did tell Ogilvie about his funeral director experience and his efforts to stay in the business, butDawson didn't mention his church, nor did his behavior give Ogilvie pause.Monday's news reports caught him off guard.
"I was very surprised. First, when I heard the name it was just kind of like it was a passing thought. And when it came back out again I said, 'That name sounds familiar,' and when I finally saw the pictures I was like, 'Oh my goodness,' " Ogilvie said.
Mortician ambition
Dawson was born in 1949, threeyears after a major race riot erupted in his hometown of Columbia.
As early as high school, Dawson wanted to be involved in the funeral rites business. Morticianwas his listed ambition in a copy of the 1967 Carver-Smith High School yearbook kept by theMaury County Archivesoffice. Aphotograph of Dawson, who graduated the same year, shows him wearing a mortar board and tassel, with a slight, closed-mouth smile. His hobbies, activities, honorsand ambition are listed beside hisoval-shaped photo.
Dawsonparticipated in band, choir and science club, and he received recognition for being an outstanding trumpeter, perfect attendance and being cooperative.
He attended Kentucky School of Mortuary Science from September 1967 to 1968, earning fair marks, according to his school transcript.
Also included among his documentation is an Aug. 11, 1971,newspaper clipping from The Daily Heraldin Columbia about Sgt. Larry R. Dawson, who had been discharged from the U.S. Army the week prior, receiving a meritorious service certificate."Sgt. Dawson was cited for consistently performing hisduties in an outstanding manner," the newspaper reported.It also said Dawson was associated with a historic, butnow-defunctfuneral home, Mrs. A.J. Morton & Son Funeral Home in Columbia.
The article said Dawson had been serving with the Army's Mortuary System in Europe based in Frankfurt, Germany. In an appearance before theTennessee Boardof FuneralDirectors and Embalmers in 2014, Dawson said he had served between 1969-71 in the Quartermaster Graves Registration Service assisting in the handling of more than 2,000 remains "during the Vietnam War."
The Tennessean requested Dawson's military service record from the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis the day after he was shot in Washington, but his personnel file had already been sent to the U.S. Army's Directorate of Human Resources based at Fort Knox, Ky. The Army would routinely recallthe records of an ex-service member involved in a serious law enforcement action for review, according to Kevin Pratt, assistant director for Military Records at the Center.
Long career as funeral director
Dawson received his funeral and embalmer license in 1972.Dawson's Mortuary on Natchez Trace in Franklinwould hold anopen house in 1974, and Larry Dawson would be listed as the funeral director for the business in obituaries that appeared in The Tennessean.
Thirty years later, he losthis professional certification.
After his license expired in 2004, Dawson would persistentlypursueits renewal in the years that followed. He saw the license as an answer to his problems and their impact on his family.
"Now I need to get out of jail so I can go and get my licenses back. My family need my help at this," said Dawsonin the 2004 letter to Heldman.
Dawson reapplied for his funeral director license in 2008, 2009 and 2014, spendinga couple thousand dollars on examand application fees.Each time the state funeral board resoundingly denied him a license, and he made ends meet workingas a car salesman and at a Nashville hotel.
Background records show a string of judgments and court liens against Dawson from the late 1990s up to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in early 2011.
Despite his troubles, Dawson was still able to call on others in the funeral businessto vouch for him.
Judith Mooney Hill, the staff assistant for office operations at Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville, wrote a letter dated Feb. 27, 2014,on Dawson's behalf calling him "a respected funeral director in the Nashville community." It was submitted to the state funeral board.In itMooney Hillexplained that she had been acquainted with Dawson since 1977.
" I have been at Greenwood Cemetery for 38 years and have dealt with Minister Dawson and found him to be a man of his word," said Mooney Hill, in the letter.
In an interview with The Tennessean, Mooney Hill said Dawson stopped by the cemetery toaskher to write the letter, but she wouldn't have done it if she had known about his harassment case. She hadn't seen him in at least a decade.
"I knew about none of it," Mooney Hill said."He was a pretty nice man when I first met him and stuff. I didn't know he had changed."
Videos of the 2009 and 2014 hearings show Dawsonresponding to the Tennessee board's questions about his inappropriate relationship with an underage girl. Over and over, Dawsonreiterates that he is a minister andGod was testing him by instructing him to correspond with the victim. He acknowledged his pastandrespondedoptimisticallythroughout the hearing.
"The fact that you're a minister doesn't excuse what you've done in the past," said Wayne Hinkle, aboard member. "When I look at this and your past, this really bothers me as an individual and I'm sorry and I'm not the one that's going to judge you, but in a little bit of a way I'm placing judgment on your past."
Board member Anita Taylor spoke of second chances andvoted to grant him his license. Board member Jane Gray Sowell, who owned a funeral home in Columbia, abstained from voting.
Community church still registered with the state
The same year Dawson received his funeral director license, he also registered a nonprofit called St. Luke's Spiritual Church, according to filing information with the Tennessee Secretary of State.It has changed names five times since 2010, including to "The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven Ministries" and "St. Luke's Community Church."
"I've never heard of thatchurch before, and I thought I knew all the St. Lukes in the city,"said the Rev. Frank Stevenson, the pastor ofSt.Luke Primitive Baptist Church in Nashville.
The church's website lists Dawson as an elder and pastor, but the address listed on the church's website matches a housein Antioch that property records say Dawson's daughter owns.
An effort to raise the minimum wage appears to be a key part of thechurch's ministry, according toits website,which features a video of Dawson. Text and video solicit donations for trips to Washington,D.C., for minimum wage advocacy efforts.
But long-time ministers of black churches in thegreater Nashville areawere not familiar with the church or Dawson as a minister. The Rev. Enoch Fuzz, who preaches at Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church in North Nashville, said it would be "very unlikely"for a minister and a church with such longevity to be in the community and not cross paths with other ministers or becomeinvolved in some sort of ecumenical, interfaithor minister group.
Commenting on Dawson's apparent business challenges, Fuzz said his race may have played a factor in his ability to get ahead.
“I know a lot of African-Americans can’t get access to capital like their white counterparts,” Fuzz said.
"If he's doing social justice, he should have been connected to the NAACP or some group,and no one I’ve met have everseen him in those things."
Mental health court
Judge Melissa Blackburn, who is the presiding judge of Davidson County’s mental health and veterans courts, receives letters on a weekly basis from attorneys and judges asking to have clients or people in their courtrooms to be evaluated for competency to stand trial and ability to assist in their own defense.
Blackburn said some people will never meet that standard, regardless of treatment. However, inpatient treatment is effective, but high demand for services and limited staffing at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute means people can’t stay as long as they need.
“They need to make sure they’re on the right medicine, not just the first one you throw at them, but to make sure they’re stable and in the habit of taking that medication so when they go home, when they go to a halfway house, when they go wherever that next step is for them that they’re still compliant,” Blackburn said.
But relapses are not uncommon, and personal trauma can spur them, Blackburn said.
"I've got a number of people in my mental health court that they were walking along, they were doing great and then all of a sudden they lose someone in their family and they areoff the rails again," Blackburn said. "When we thought they were getting near the end of their time on probation with the court, they're almost ready to graduate and some traumatic event happens and they're right back at the start again, which is so unfortunate because they were doing so well."
A deacon at St. Luke Primitive Baptist Church (no connection to Dawson's church) is a distant relative of Dawson's and asked the Rev. Frank Stevensonto pass along to the media that Dawson's family loved him and they're praying for him.
Reach Holly Meyer at 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.Natalie Neysa Alundcontributed to this story.
Timeline of Larry Dawson's life
1967 Graduates from Carver-Smith High School in Columbia, Tenn.
1967-68 Attends Kentucky School of Mortuary Science
1969-71 Serves in the U.S. Army
1972 Receives Tennessee funeral director and embalmer license
1972 Registers St. Luke’s Spiritual Church as a nonprofit with the Tennessee Secretary of State
1974 Dawson’s Mortuary opens in Franklin; he is listed as funeral director
1990s to 2011 Faces financial problems with judgments and court liens and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
2001-05 Writes inappropriate letters to an underage teen girl and is fired from his job as a school bus driver for Williamson County Schools. Charged twice with harassment, found not guilty by reason of insanity and given court-ordered inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment.
2002 One of his daughters dies.
2004 Funeral director and embalmer license expires
2008, 2009, 2014 Denied license by Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers
October Arrested after disruptingHouse proceedingsand issued a “stay away order,” requiring him to avoid Capitol grounds.
March 28 to April 1Shot by U.S. Capitol Police after brandishing a BB gun at a Capitol Visitors Center security check. Charged with two federal offenses with maximum statutorysentences of 25 years and 30 years, respectively.
Need help?
Call the TN Statewide Crisis Phone Line if you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency. The number is 855-CRISIS-1 or 855-274-7471. Visit namidavidson.org for more information and resources.
