Telling his parents? They are 21 year old men. Dalton should have gone to the cops if he thought he was serious.
But, really, how many 21 year olds out there talk sh!t and nothing comes of it.
The cops can't do anything with a generalized anger, other than try to keep an eye on him as attention permits. You do have a great point though, parents are probably about as useful, the fellow is 21, and likely out of reach of parents' persuasion.
-- how many 21 year olds out there talk sh!t and nothing comes of it. --
All of them/us that manage to reach that age.
Bottom line, right there. It looks prophetic in retrospect in the odd case something happens, but "I'll kill....(whoever)" are probably muttered or said outright hundreds of thousands of times a day.
It wasn't until I got my CCW that I realized that 'shoot', 'kill', and other expressions of ill will toward any person had to be eliminated from my vocabulary if I was going to survive a post-conflict legal situation, should that arise--especially with any individual who might have provoked such comments.
But I hear such comments often enough that they are seldom given any credence unless specifically directed toward me.