Man's trespassing led to armed guard at elementary school, but family says he's not a threat

The family of a man whose trespassing charges led to an armed officer being placed at a Wake Forest elementary school says that he is mentally ill but is not a danger to the students or staff.

Jones Dairy Elementary has an armed off-duty Wake County sheriff's deputy at the year-round school since shortly after trespassing charges were filed two weeks ago against Arthur Kochetkov, 33. Parents have complained about Kochetkov, who lives next to the school, repeatedly trespassing on campus and writing Facebook posts with violent messages.

But his brother, Vadim Kochetkov, says the posts are symptoms of his brother's mental illness, includes streams of consciousness and conspiratorial thinking toward authority figures. Vadim Kochetkov says his brother has never acted out violently and has no access to firearms.

"My brother is not a threat," Vadim Kochetkov said. "He’s not acted out violently toward or expressed any desire to act violently toward kids or schools or school officials.”

Vaidim Kochetkov said Wake Forest police investigated the online posts and determined they amounted to nothing. Wake Forest Police can't comment because it's an ongoing investigation, according to Bill Crabtree, a town spokesman.

Vadim Kochetkov said officers allowed his brother to be taken to a Veterans Affairs hospital for treatment of his mental illness instead of immediately arresting him. But he said his brother will likely be taken into custody after he's discharged.

Arthur Kochetkov was valedictorian of Warren County High School and majored in applied physics and math at the University of Rochester before joining the U.S. Army, according to his brother. Vadim Kochetkov said that his brother had a psychotic breakdown while in the Army and began to exhibit symptoms of his illness in earnest after his discharge.

"I am deemed psychologically unstable, PTSD'd, and with a Reactive SEvere Schizoaffective Disorder according to the Federal Government. So be sure you send all the troops you got," Arthur Kochetkov wrote in a May 2017 Facebook post.

When the symptoms are their worst, Vadim Kochetkov said his brother doesn't look after himself physically and forgets to come home.

Vadim Kochetkov says he can understand why parents may have been worried when they saw his unkempt brother on campus earlier this month wearing military fatigues and taking pictures. It triggered a lockdown of the school.

But Vadim Kochetkov said his brother was on the school's playground because he was attracted to the unique shape of a swing.

"He focuses in on things that are unique and pretty random," Vadim Kochetkov said. "He’s in no shape to plot anything."

Vadim Kochetkov says he's very concerned the deputy won't understand his brother's condition. He said this could result in the deputy responding violently if his brother is perceived as not acting normally.

“It seems to me the reaction of the school is disproportionate to any kind of threat that Arthur might pose — which is pretty negligible," Vadim Kochetkov said.

The Wake County school system's contract for the deputy expires at the end of the month, according to Lisa Luten, a district spokeswoman. It was not immediately clear whether the contract would be extended.

This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Man's trespassing led to armed guard at elementary school, but family says he's not a threat."