Last weekend, a security guard working at Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival allegedly made false mass shooting threats to get out early.
That Friday afternoon, Janya Williams, 18, allegedly texted her boss under an alias with the following message: “Mass shooting at 4 pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets.”
The supervisor immediately contacted their superiors, alerting the FBI and the Chicago police.
Williams allegedly told the supervisor her sister had seen a similar threat on Facebook when the supervisor informed the team about the danger.
According to reports, after responding to the supervisor’s request for a screenshot of the threat, she created a Facebook account under the name “Ben Scott” and posted, “Massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park at 6:00 pm.”
After taking a screenshot of the post, Williams sent it to her supervisor, prosecutors alleged. However, the FBI reportedly tracked the TextNow message back to Williams’ IP address and iCloud.
Williams admitted to the police for making the false threats “because she wanted to leave work early.”
She has been charged with a felony of making a false terrorism threat and is currently held on $50,000 bail.
