Someone placed a terrorist threat just one minute before tip off at the Los Angeles vs Los Angeles Clippers game at the Staples Center in January. For some reason, we are just hearing about it.
According to TMZ, an officer received a call on January 29 just before 7:30 pm local time. On the other end of the line was a robotic voice that said, “Several people in the crowd seated strategically have explosives strapped to their chest and explosives in their shoes.”
Explosives weren’t the only thing the caller warned about. Apparently the terrorists had firearms too. “Some of them are also strapped with Glock 18, have guns and will shoot any patron that may come in their path,” said the caller. “We are doing this for Allah and for Jihad. We are going to slaughter the patrons of tonight’s Lakers/Clippers game and there is no one that can stop us.”
Before hanging up the caller said, “We have people hostage in some of the bathrooms already and we shot one in the knee cap. You are all going to f***** die tonight, you filthy Americans.”
Police believe the call was placed from a Skype line. They were able to obtain a search warrant to force Skype to hand over the account information connected to the number. With the incident happening on January 29, I don’t recall the Staples Center being evacuated for precautionary measures, or any news reports on terroristic threats at the time.
The Lakers and Clippers face off again on April 5. Here’s hoping that this news remains a false alarm.
