An Arkansas man allegedly threatened to shoot up his local Walmart if the ongoing hantavirus outbreak were to prompt a lockdown like the one caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Aaron Keith Bynum, 20, was arrested on Friday for making the purported mass shooting threat while gaming online, according to a news release from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Bynum allegedly told other players that he would open fire inside his nearest local Walmart “if the country were locked down again due to the hantavirus.”
Walmart if the US went into a lockdown because of the hantavirus outbreak. Marion County Sheriff
Another gamer on the server reported the threat to the FBI’s National Threats Operations Center on May 9. The anonymous tipster also provided a username and an in-game recording that captured the moment the threat was made.
It’s not clear if Bynum shared his alleged plan verbally or typed it in a chatroom.
The parent company of the online game identified Bynum as the owner of the account in question on May 11.
The NTOC then linked up with the FBI Fayetteville Field Office and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, whose investigators separately obtained a search warrant and probable cause affidavit for Bynum’s arrest.
Bynum was cuffed without incident on Friday and placed in the Marion County Detention Center on a $2,500 bond. He was charged with first-degree terroristic threatening and harassing communications.
The hantavirus outbreak originated on the MV Hondius cruise ship. Patient Zero, an ornithologist, died on board two weeks after he and his wife visited a landfill in Argentina, where health officials suspect they contracted the rare human-transmissible Andes strain. His wife and a third person also died of the rodent-borne illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently monitoring 41 people for possible infection. The bulk of those under supervision were passengers on the cruise, while others were on international flights with a symptomatic traveller from the ship.
Early reports of the outbreak caused widespread panic over the fear of a new pandemic, but health officials have stressed that there is no need for major concern.
Hantavirus is typically spread through contact with an infected rodent or its excrement. Regular strains cannot be passed between people.
