Lollapalooza Staffer Who Made Up Mass Shooting Threat To Get Out Of Work Early Goes To Jail

Lollapalooza Staffer Who Made Up Mass Shooting Threat To Get Out Of Work Early Goes To Jail Chicago Police

A member of Lollapalooza’s security staffer has been arrested after she made up a mass shooting threat so she could leave work early. According to the Chicago Tribune, 18-year-old Jayna B. Williams thought she could get some extra time off by texting the threat from an unknown phone number but she was soon caught out and is now in jail.

  1. Williams texted the threat to a colleague. Authorities say the colleague received the message from an unknown number which read: “Mass shooting at 4pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets.” The number was later revealed to have been created through TextNow, a free online service that lets users register real phone numbers.
  2. The authorities quickly became involved. After the colleague told supervisors about the message, the Chicago Police and FBI Joint Counterterrorism Task Force were alerted and began investigating. They found that Williams had created a throwaway Facebook account under the name “Ben Scott” and also posted the threat there.
  3. Unfortunately for her, Williams didn’t realize how quickly she’d be traced. TextNow happens to keep users’ IP addresses for situations like this and gave this info to authorities. They then traced the number back to Williams and took her into custody.
  4. Williams is now facing very serious charges. She was charged with a felony count of making a false terrorism threat. When questioned by prosecutors, she admitted that she made up the threat in order to hopefully get out of work early.  Cook County Judge Mary Marubio ordered her held in lieu of $50,000 bail and she currently remains behind bars. She’s due back in court on Monday.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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