KUSA - A Colorado man was taken into custody in Provo, Utah Saturday after local investigators said he threatened to shoot up “a public place soon” and kill “as many girls as I see” in a Facebook diatribe that was posted on the same day as the Women’s March.
Christopher Cleary, 27, is being held in the Utah County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Bureau on a charge of threat of terrorism. He is also wanted for a probation violation in Jefferson County and could face extradition to Colorado. Deputies said he has a history of felony stalking and threatening women, and his Facebook post concerned investigators in Colorado who thought he was in the state at the time.
A Colorado officer first contacted Utah authorities early Saturday morning after seeing Cleary’s post. On his Facebook page, an affidavit from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office alleges Cleary wrote:
“All I wanted was a girlfriend, not 1000, not a bunch of hoes, not money, none of that. All I wanted was to be loved, yet no one cares about me,” the post reads. “I’m 27 years old, I’ve never had a girlfriend before and I’m still a virgin, this is why I’m planning on shooting up a public place soon and being the next mass shooter cause I’m ready to die and all the girls [that] turned me down is going to make it right by killing as many girls as I can see.”
The affidavit said Cleary’s post also read, “There’s nothing more dangerous than a man ready to die.”
An IP address connected to the post led officers to a home in Provo. FBI agents were later able to track Cleary’s phone and found him at a nearby McDonald’s, according to the arrest affidavit.
Once Cleary was escorted out of the McDonald’s by law enforcement, the affidavit says he agreed to speak to police, and admitted to writing the Facebook post. Police said he “claimed to be upset and not thinking clearly when he did so.”
Cleary admitted to deleting the Facebook post, and told police he had been receiving threats from other people posting about it, according to the arrest affidavit.
It sparked specific concern because it fell on the same day that thousands of women across the country marched in public places.
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