A Lollapalooza security guard has been charged with making a false terrorist threat, which is a felony, after allegedly circulating two fake mass shooting messages to get out of work, reports The Chicago Tribune. After the messages were relayed to Chicago police and the FBI Joint Counterterrorism Task Force, digital tracing led back to the security guard, 18-year-old Janya Williams, who later confessed that she sent the messages “because she wanted to leave work early,” according to prosecutors.
On Friday (July 29), Williams allegedly sent her supervisor an anonymous text message using TextNow that said, “Mass shooting at 4pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets.” After the supervisor informed higher-ups at Lollapalooza’s security team, CPD and the FBI were notified. Williams then told her supervisor that her sister saw a mass shooting threat on Facebook as well, said prosecutors. When asked to share a screenshot of that post, Williams allegedly created a fake Facebook page under the name “Ben Scott,” wrote a post that read “massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6 p.m.,” and sent a screenshot of it to her supervisor.
Investigators quickly discovered that the Apple iCloud account and IP address of the TextNow number both belonged to Williams, said prosecutors. On Sunday (July 31), Cook County Judge Mary Marubio set Williams’ bond at $50,000 under the conditions that she must be on electronic monitoring if she’s released. Her next hearing is set for August 8, reports Block Club Chicago.
At this year’s Lollapalooza, Lil Durk was injured in a pyrotechnics accident, Metallica and Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn played “Master of Puppets” together backstage, and activists protested the festival over Chicago’s ongoing youth curfew.
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