(West Palm Beach) A 17-year-old Canadian has been charged with making online death threats against attendees of an LGBTQ community event in West Palm Beach, on Florida’s east coast.
Posted at 6:13 a.m.
The Miami Police Department received a report last Sunday, June 5, that a person on the Omegle chat platform was threatening to carry out a mass shooting at the Pride on the Block 2022 event in West Palm Beach.
Police say the suspect, an Ontario teenager, was seen brandishing a gun in the video, while making derogatory comments against the LGBTQ community and claiming to live in Palm Beach County, where he was said he was going to carry out the mass shooting that day.
Miami police informed their colleagues in West Palm Beach and a criminal investigation was opened.
The West Palm Beach Police Department said in a press release that its officers cooperated with the US Federal Police, the FBI, the New York Police Service, the Toronto Police and the Regional Police in Peel, Ontario. , to determine the location of the suspect.
The teenager was arrested in Canada early Monday morning and the video, along with the firearm seen in the video, was recovered at the time of the arrest.
Canadian authorities have charged the suspect with threatening to commit a mass shooting. Similar charges are pending in Florida, including making written or electronic threats to kill, harm, or commit a mass shooting or terrorism.