DOCUMENT: Internet, Stupid

FBI Probes "Killing Spree" Facebook Threat

Posts warned of September 14 murders in Colorado

Columbine

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Killing Spree Plot

SEPTEMBER 7--Alarmed by Facebook posts promoting a “Killing Spree” this month in Littleton, Colorado--home to Columbine High School--FBI agents last week raided a residence allegedly connected to the online threats and seized several guns and “eight books and notebook involving killing,” court records show.

Law enforcement officials learned of the Facebook posts after a tipster contacted police in Littleton to report a variety of disturbing images and messages on a Facebook page in the name “Eric Rebdomine.” One of the Columbine killers, Eric Harris, used the online alias “Rebdomine.”

Investigators discovered that the “Rebdomine” account had created a Facebook “event” announcing the planned “Killing Spree” in Littleton. “Join me on September 14th and kill as many people as possible,” the notice stated.

The tipster told cops that when she initially visited the page, she saw that “180 people had been invited to the ‘KILLING SPREE,’ and 37 had responded that they were coming,” according to an FBI affidavit sworn by Agent Russell Humphrey.

September 14 is “a significant day in the history of mass killings,” reported Humphrey. On that date in 2006, two Wisconsin students “allegedly obsessed” with the Columbine murders were arrested “with an arsenal of weapons in connection with a planned attack” on a Green Bay high school. Humphrey also noted that a Japanese man who killed eight elementary school students (and injured 13 others) was executed on that date in 2004.

A law enforcement review of the “Rebdomine” account revealed a variety of other threatening statements, including, “I’m going to show the world what a mass murderer really is. 85 people dead. 160 injured. I’ll get it done!” Following the July 20 Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, “Rebdomine” criticized the accused shooter’s performance. “James holmes had 6000 rounds of ammo, but only killed 12…I could have done sooo much better.”

As part of its probe of “potential online death threats,” FBI agents served Facebook with a search warrant for IP addresses associated with the “Rebdomine” account. Then, with the assistance of an Internet service provider, investigators tracked log-ins to the account to a Beaufort, South Carolina home. Other log-ins were made from an iPhone that “connected to the Internet from various cell phone towers that were not in Beaufort.”

Agents last Tuesday raided the White Pine Road residence, which is occupied by Mark Jordan, 57, and several relatives. They seized two Acer computers, an iPhone, two rifles, a revolver, and “eight books and notebook involving killing.”

In a TSG interview, Jordan said, “it was my daughter” when asked who in his household was connected to the “Rebdomine” account. Jordan said that FBI agents interviewed his daughter, who he described as being in her 30s and “interested in crime in general.” He added that he was not familiar with details of the federal probe.

No arrests have been made in connection with the FBI’s “Rebdomine” probe, which is centering on alleged threats transmitted in interstate commerce, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. (5 pages)