FBI: Ohio man threatened mass shooting
CLEVELAND — Federal prosecutors said an Ohio man made anonymous threats online to commit a mass shooting in a community in Illinois.
Ryan Gagnet, 22, of Maumee made the threats in early February using Omegle, a social media website that allows users to chat with random users, according to court filings.
“Hi. It’s going to be even more scary tomorrow. Because I’m going to be on the news. Commit a mass shooting. In shorewood Illoinis (sic),” Gagnet wrote, according to filings. Shorewood is a village of about 18,000 people, located about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
The FBI learned of the threat Feb. 5 and tracked Gagnet down two days later. Gagnet, who attends Bowling Green State University, admitted that he made the comments and also told agents they may find disturbing things in the search histories on his electronic devices, the filings say.
A grand jury indicted him Wednesday, charging him with transmitting a threat.
The case is one of several the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in northern Ohio undertook in recent years that involve either ideologically-driven online threats or domestic terrorism that is not explicitly tied to overseas groups such as al-Qaida or the Islamic State.
“Every person in this country deserves to feel safe in their community,” U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in a news release.
Gagnet’s attorney Jerome Phillips said he is concerned there might be more in his story. A little more than a week after federal prosecutors first charged Gagnet, he asked a U.S. magistrate judge in Toledo to order a psychiatric examination. The judge granted the request.
Phillips, who described the case as “kind of a bizarre situation” while still acknowledging its severity, said there may be some mental-health issues that could explain his client’s behavior. He said Gagnet has a 3.5 grade-point average in college and has no prior criminal record. He also said his client had no weapons or destructive devices.
FBI agents in Chicago saw a tweet on Feb. 5 that showed a screenshot of the conversation the user had with someone on Omegle, which contained the threat against Shorewood, according to an affidavit filed by FBI agent Sara Pedersen. The Twitter user told agents that they chatted with the anonymous Omegle user on Feb. 4.
By Feb. 7, agents determined that the anonymous user was Gagnet and were able to interview him, the affidavit states.
“Maybe 3 days ago . I went on Omegle . I was wearing a mask, and I was telling people that ah that there may be a mass shooting at some point . then I would just see how ah their frightened reactions,” he told agents, according to the affidavit.
Gagnet said he may have talked to a dozen people and would ask “do you want to see my face?”, the affidavit states. When they said “yes,” he would tell them they were going to see his face on the news because of what he was going to do, the FBI says.
The deputy police chief of the Shorewood police chief told agents that meetings and essential duties involving the department were canceled for two days to address the threat, according to the FBI. Ten officers worked overtime and the department stationed police at schools. They told school officials in Shorewood, which also serve surrounding communities.
Nearly all the schools operated on a “soft lockdown” for two days, which meant they canceled outdoor recess and didn’t allow students to leave the classroom unless necessary, the affidavit states.