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A man in Florida threatened to kill 100 LGBTQ people, then said that he was joking [1]
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Date: 2023-01-06
Mass killings: Not a joke. Especially to the LGBTQ community.
19-year-old Sean Michael Albert of Winter Park, Florida made a violent threat on Discord last December. The Full Sail University student, under the username BloodstainedSand#0088, posted a picture of an AR-15 style rifle, which was from a random Reddit post, to accompany his threat.
600 W College Ave, Tallahassee, FL 32306. At 13:00 December 17, 2022 100 Faggots Will Die, Cya there!
The College Avenue address, by the way, points to Florida State University in Tallahassee, which is a 4-5 hour drive from the Orlando suburb of Winter Park. Albert managed to be tracked down thanks to Discord tracing the IP address of the post to Albert’s apartment. The manager of Albert’s apartment complex indicated that he had frightening behaviour, sometimes even to the point of violence. Indeed, Albert himself had a troubling history of using derogatory language, as well as a history of tense confrontation with other people.
“Kill all joggers,” a disguised, derogatory term for Black people. “Tear gas a synagogue,” he allegedly wrote, in response to his plans for a weekend. “A genocide on faggots NEEDS to happen not even a question.”
Sean Albert flew to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) from Orlando International Airport (MCO) in mid-December, and he returned back to Orlando on New Year’s Day, just in time for him to be interviewed by the FBI; the FBI obtained a search warrant for Albert’s phone just the day before. (It can be presumed that Albert was visiting family in the DC area; the billing address for his account’s Google Pay services was in Rockville, Maryland.)
When Albert was interviewed by the FBI, he said that his threatening post on Discord was not against the law, stating the post was intended to be “ironic”, “satirical”, and “a joke”. When asked why the address of Florida State University was the intended target of his threat, Albert iterated that such a post would get the most reaction from those on the Discord server.
Ultimately, FBI officials determined that Albert is in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). Albert is detained by US Marshals until his trial, per an order made by Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd of the Middle District of Florida.
Based on the above, there is probable cause to believe that ALBERT knowingly sent a message in interstate or foreign commerce containing a true threat to injure the person of another and sent the message with the intent to communicate a true threat or with knowledge that it would be viewed as a true threat, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c).
x A federal magistrate judge has ordered Sean Michael Albert to remain behind bars until his trial. Albert is accused of posting a picture of an AR-15-style rifle and threatening to kill 100 gay people at Florida State University.
https://t.co/9BF89gkHwz — WCTV Eyewitness News (@WCTV) January 5, 2023
Threats of mass shooting are not as rare as one would believe. Last month, 33-year-old Lowell Thomas Schoonmaker of Boca Raton, Florida warned of a “mass murder coming soon” and stated that he will “kill 20 people”; Schoonmaker all but attributed his mass shooting threat on Twitch to depression, drinking problems, and the death of his grandfather.
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