Joe.My.God. LGBT News
No mugshot yet for this guy. That’s Nikolas Cruz above.
The Miami Herald reports:
A California man used Instagram to “harass and intimidate” the relatives and friends of the victims of the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida.
Brandon Fleury, of Santa Ana, was arrested Friday on charges of using the internet to threaten to kidnap a person and to harass a person. He is expected to face a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale Monday.
According to the complaint, filed Friday, Fleury used Instagram accounts including “nikolas.killed.your.sister” — a reference to the confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz — to send threatening messages. Among them: “I killed your loved ones ha ha ha” and “cry for me.”
The New York Post reports:
“With the power of my AR-15, I erased their existence,” he also wrote in one post, which was accompanied by smiling, applauding and handgun emojis, according to the complaint. At least five of the accounts traced back to an IP address in Santa Ana, where the suspect lived with his father and brother, the complaint said.
“One post threatened to kidnap the message recipients, while others sought to harass the recipients by repeatedly taunting the relatives and friends of the MSD victims, cheering the deaths of their loved ones,” FBI Special Agent Cameron McDowell wrote in the filing.
On Christmas Eve, several posts targeted Jesse Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old sister, Jaime, was among the 17 students and school staffers killed on Feb. 14, 2018. Guttenberg received the messages, “How’s Jaime, hun?” and “Dead huh,” according to the feds.
The Washington Post reports:
FBI agents and other law enforcement officers descended on his home early in the morning of Jan. 16. According to the criminal complaint, Fleury commented that they were probably there because of “some stupid s—” that he had done on the Internet.
Fleury told detectives that he had been “trying to ‘get reactions’ from people and be controversial and “was motivated by gaining popularity and notoriety after posting the messages,” FBI Special Agent Cameron McDowell wrote.
He reportedly said that he felt no remorse but had not intended to follow through on his threats, which he claimed “were ‘more like taunts.’ ” A detective asked if he could see why messages like “I am your abductor” and “I am kidnapping you, fool” would seem like a threat. “I guess so,” he replied.
Brandon Fleury allegedly took on the guise of Nikolas Cruz to harass Parkland victims’ families online https://t.co/IjAw4IO6OR
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 23, 2019