An Arkansas man was arrested after allegedly making threats to carry out a mass shooting at his local Walmart if the country were to go into another lockdown due to a hantavirus outbreak.
Aaron Keith Bynum, 20, of Oakland, Arkansas, faces charges of first-degree terroristic threatening and harassing communications following an investigation into threats made online, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
An investigation was launched after the FBI received a tip on May 9 from an individual playing an online multiplayer video game with the suspect. The tipster alleged that the player threatened to carry out a mass shooting at a local Walmart “if the country were locked down again due to the Hantavirus.”
Authorities said the individual provided the player’s gamer username along with an in-game recording of the alleged threats, which referenced growing public attention surrounding a hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship.
Investigators subpoenaed the game’s parent company, which identified Bynum as the owner of the account, officials said.
On May 13, the FBI’s Fayetteville Field Office contacted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and turned over the information to investigators.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for Bynum’s home and on May 15, searched the house in Oakland, where they seized a computer and related accessories.
Bynum was taken into custody without incident, according to Sheriff Gregg Alexander.
He was booked into the Marion County Detention Center and his bond was set at $2,500.
The MV Hondius was still carrying 25 crew members and two medical personnel when it docked at the Dutch port of Rotterdam for disinfection on Monday.
As of May 18, the outbreak on the ship has reached at least 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed by the World Health Organization.
Three passengers have died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America, The Associated Press reported.
Eighteen Americans are currently under observation at specialized healthcare facilities in the United States designed to treat people with dangerous infectious diseases.
Hantavirus is typically spread to humans through exposure to rodents and, in rare cases, can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome – a severe respiratory illness with a fatality rate between 25 percent and 40 percent, according to WHO. Symptoms can rapidly escalate from fever and nausea to life-threatening lung and heart complications.
