City documents, neighbors reveal Highland Park man whom police killed had history of mental-health struggles, concerning behavior — including online threat in 2024

A little over a year ago, a woman reported to Highland Park police that a friend of hers had posted on Facebook a photo of six assault rifles with the caption: “Just purchased a few of these down in Florida. Brought ’em up north to get my revenge on the North Shore.”

Officers investigated the Facebook page, eventually located its owner and successfully petitioned for a firearms restraining order from a Lake County judge, as The Record previously reported. 

A collection of Highland Park police reports recently obtained by The Record show that resident Brent Bucholtz allegedly told officers he made the threatening post and willingly admitted himself to a local hospital after police found no firearms in his residence at 927 Half Day Road.

In the early morning hours of June 20, Highland Park police officers conducting a wellness check in that same neighborhood shot and killed Bucholtz after he reportedly “charged” at officers with a knife. 

City documents show that the threatening social-media post in 2024 was one of at least 22 different Highland Park police incident reports between August 2022 and May 2025 involving the 59-year-old Bucholtz, who, according to the reports and his obituary, struggled with his mental health and exhibited behavior that alarmed local residents. 

Details of the shooting that killed Bucholtz remain unclear. The City of Highland Park has presently denied The Record’s records request under the justification it would “obstruct or interfere” with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office ongoing investigation into Highland Park’s officer-involved shooting.

‘Revenge on the North Shore’

A woman reported Bucholtz’s alleged threatening Facebook post to Highland Park police on April 17, 2024. She told officers that Bucholtz had also recently posted suicidal statements, a city police report shows. 

Highland Park officers located Bucholtz at a nearby car wash later that same day and he gave consent for officers to search his home and vehicle, the police report says.

Bucholtz reportedly told police that the photo of the rifles he posted on Facebook came from an issue of Recoil, a firearms magazine officers then found in his living room. 

Bucholtz told officers he made the post as a joke out of anger after a man insulted him at a birthday party, the report says. Bucholtz reportedly said he hated the North Shore but the threat was to no one in particular and he did not want to shoot anyone.

According to the report, Bucholtz told officers he was bullied as a student at New Trier High School after moving to the North Shore from Florida when he was 15.

Bucholtz then reportedly told officers about his mental-health struggles, including details on hospitalizations and medications.

The report shows that, during the conversation with police, Bucholtz agreed to be evaluated at a hospital. He was not charged with any crimes. 

Per the police report, when an officer asked Bucholtz on April 17, 2024, if he had any weapons in his residence, Bucholtz answered he had no weapons other than a butcher knife. 

Three different people reported concerns to Highland Park police — in June 2023, October 2024 and August 2024, respectively — that Bucholtz had allegedly made inappropriate comments or inappropriate posts on social media that referenced young females, a police report says. 

Two Highland Park police detectives interviewed Bucholtz about the social media posts in May 2024.

Bucholtz allegedly admitted to having previously taken pictures of young girls he didn’t know in Winnetka and Florida, but said he understood the age of consent and allowed his phone to be searched by a detective, a police report says.

Signs and mailboxes

Bucholtz called police seven different times between August 2022 and July 2024 to report that flags and signs outside of his residence were damaged or stolen, Highland Park police reports show.

In specific instances, Bucholtz reported on May 10, 2024, that three signs — showing “I stand with Israel,” “Desantis 2024” and “Honest Elections,” respectively — were stolen from outside his residence. 

Bucholtz reported that a “Support the Porn Industry” sign was stolen from outside his residence on May 24, 2024, and again on June 19 and July 24 of that year.

A “Hail Satan” sign was also reportedly stolen from outside his residence on July 31, 2024, Bucholtz told police.

On Aug. 4, 2024, a Highland Park resident informed police they had found two sex toys in their mailbox that they had not purchased. Video footage captured a person the resident allegedly suspected to be their neighbor, Bucholtz, stopping by their mailbox earlier that day. 

Another nearby resident found a sex toy in their mailbox they told police they had not purchased. A Highland Park police officer spoke with Bucholtz, who denied any involvement with the suspicious activity and said he understood it’s illegal to deliver things directly to neighbors, a police report says. 

On May 27, 2025, according to another police report, a Highland Park police officer responded to Madame Zuzu’s cafe, 1876 1st St., after an employee reported that a man had left plastic bags containing pornographic DVDs, magazines and sex toys in the women’s bathroom.

The officer allegedly identified Bucholtz as the man seen on surveillance footage at Madame Zuzu’s and later served Bucholtz with a citation for disorderly conduct.

‘You hear things’

David Feldman, a Highland Park resident who lives near where the June 20 shooting took place, recalled his wife woke him up around 1:15 a.m. that morning after hearing two loud bangs outside.

Feldman looked outside but did not see anything out of the ordinary until police later arrived around 5 a.m.

Feldman said he never met Bucholtz, but often heard him drumming and playing music from his open garage. Sounds of Bucholtz yelling and swearing increased over the last six months, Feldman said. 

“He would be drumming all the time, a lot of screaming at neighbors,” Feldman said. “Something was angering him but I don’t know what it was.”

Simone Trayber, another Highland Park resident who lives in the area, said she never saw or met Bucholtz but saw “vulgar” signs outside his residence referencing the porn industry.

After Bucholtz allegedly made the Facebook post that referred to bringing guns to the North Shore, members of the community requested more police presence in the neighborhood, Trayber said. 

“We’ve requested for some more police presence around because our school is right down the street,” Trayber said. “There’s lots of young families. You hear things, just want to make sure that things are safe, but that’s all.”

Struggles ‘overwhelmed his dreams’

An online obituary details that Bucholtz attended high school in Jacksonville, Florida, before he was a student at New Trier High School and went on to study in the University of Florida. 

Bucholtz “was a talented hard-rock drummer and guitarist” who played in open mics and established home studios like the Binaural Beats Studio in Highland Park and The Boneyard in Florida, the obituary says.

His “great dream was to form a band and record an album,” according to the obituary.

Bucholtz “faced a lifelong struggle with mental illness” and at one point found “stability” through Thresholds, a Chicago-based provider of mental health services. In lieu of flowers, the obituary asks for memorial contributions be sent to Thresholds. 

“Brent had an inherent sweetness and concern for others but sadly his mental illness challenges eventually overwhelmed his dreams,” the obituary said. 

He is survived by his mother, ex-wife, aunts and cousins.

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