Lollapalooza security guard charged for faking mass shooting threat to ditch work early: report

An 18-year-old security guard who worked for Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival last weekend has been arrested for making two false mass shooting threats in order to get out of work early.

(Video Credit: CBS Chicago)

Janya Williams allegedly made one threat via text and another on Facebook that was easily traced back to her according to Fox News.

An anonymous text was sent to her Andy Frain Services supervisor via TextNow on Friday that warned, “Mass shooting at 4pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets.”

The supervisor immediately went to his supervisor and reported the threat. The threat was then reported to the Chicago Police command post in Grant Park. The FBI’s Joint Counterterrorism Task Force was also notified of the potential threat, according to court documents.

When the supervisor told staffers about the threat, Williams reportedly told him that her sister had seen a similar threat on Facebook. The supervisor then asked Williams to send him a screenshot of the post.

Williams is accused of creating a bogus Facebook account under the name “Ben Scott” so she could post a message that said, “Massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6:00 p.m.” She then took a screenshot of the post as requested and sent it to her supervisor according to Cook County prosecutors.

It did not take long for the FBI and Chicago police to trace the TextNow message back to Williams’ IP address and iCloud prosecutors contended. She was then brought to the CPD command center for questioning. Prosecutors allege that Williams used her TextNow application number to send the message.

She admitted to making the terroristic threats “because she wanted to leave work early,” prosecutors charged.

Williams was arrested for making a false terrorism threat which is a felony. She is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

It is unclear how she qualified to be a security guard considering she had a pending case in a retail theft incident at the time of her arrest according to WGN-TV.

She has been booked into jail and is now being held on $50,000 bail. Lollapalooza took place last weekend, starting on Thursday and going through Sunday.

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