A Tennessee man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly making online threats to “shoot up” a Planned Parenthood clinic in D.C., the latest arrest in a nationwide crackdown on threats to carry out mass shootings.
Jacob Cooper, 20, was brought into a federal court in Nashville and accused of posting a threatening message on the social media site and app iFunny, Reuters reported.
“Make sure you tell them about how I plan to shoot up a planned parenthood facility in Washington D.C., on August 19th at 3 pm,” prosecutors allege he commented on another person’s post.
Mr. Cooper is accused of violating a federal law against interstate threats and could receive up to five years in prison.
The arrest is the latest in a law enforcement crackdown of mass shooting threats following two massacres in early August — one in El Paso, Texas, and one in Dayton, Ohio — which left a combined 31 people dead.
CNN reported that more than two dozen arrests connected to similar threats have been made since the two shootings, at least eight of which have resulted in criminal charges.
This is also at least the third arrest in response to a threat made on iFunny this month.
An 18-year-old Ohio man was arrested for posting threats to kill law enforcement on Aug. 12 while a 19-year-old Illinois man was arrested for threatening to open fire on an abortion clinic this week.
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