By Nathan Pilling
The Kansas City Star
(TNS)
A man accused of making a false gun threat that set off an active shooter lockdown at the Kansas City IRS campus on Pershing Road last year has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Anthony Alford, 46, of Kansas City, made the report of the fake threat to 911 on Sept. 10, saying a woman he had been dating, who was an IRS employee, had a gun and was threatening to shoot up the federal building at 333 W. Pershing Road, according to court documents. The call led to a law enforcement response at the campus and set off a lockdown as the agency announced there was an active shooter in the building, officials said.
Alford was eventually arrested, and he pleaded guilty to a count of intentionally conveying false and misleading information in January in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison Wednesday.
After the 911 call, Kansas City police, Department of Homeland Security officers and IRS security responded and detained the woman who worked at the IRS building. She was handcuffed but was eventually cleared.
She reported that she dated Alford for about a month and had been trying to break up with him for about a week. She said Alford had never been violent but that he had exhibited “controlling, possessive and jealous behavior,” according to court documents.
Before the 911 call, he had repeatedly called and messaged her and threatened to involve the police, authorities said. In one message the morning of the 911 call, he reportedly said, “On the phone with IRS police have fun when you get there.”
Police arrested Alford two weeks after the incident, and in an interview, he told law enforcement he had been drinking alcohol when he called 911.
“Alford expressed regret about making the false 911 call admitting that he was ‘drunk and pissed off,’” a federal agent wrote in court documents.
In court documents, Alford’s attorney, Marc Ermine, asked for a seven-month sentence with a requirement that Alford participate in alcohol treatment, saying his client has had alcohol abuse issues for decades.
The false report came after an argumentative text message exchange between Alford and the woman that was sent while Alford was drinking, Ermine wrote. He was arrested and admitted that he had been in an argument with the woman while he was drunk and that he had made the false report, Ermine wrote.
Ermine didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of four years in prison, saying, “Calling in a false report of an imminent mass shooting at a heavily populated federal building places everyone nearby in danger. Employees simply pulling into work are thrust into an appropriately armed and amplified, but wholly unnecessary, police protective response. The police too were both placed on high alert, but also diverted from other tasks for which they are needed because (Alford) was mad.”
Photo caption: Aerial view of the IRS building in Kansas City, MO. (Ryan Wewers/iStock)
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©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: IRS, Kansas City, prison sentences
