A guard for Chicago’s annual Lollapalooza concert event allegedly called in a fake mass shooting threat spurring a massive presence of the police and even the FBI so she could get off work early, according to prosecutors and police reports.
According to reports, on Friday at 2:48 p.m., concert guard Janya Williams, 18, sent a shocking text to her superiors reading, “Mass shooting at 4 p.m. Location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets.”
Naturally, the Chicago Police responded in force and federal agents — including the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force — joined them over the threat that did not seem out of the question, according to CWBChicago.
Williams was asked to verify her report of a shooting and claimed that her sister told her she saw the threat posted in Facebook by the suspected shooter.
When her supervisors asked Williams to provide proof of the Facebook threat, she allegedly created a fake account under the name “Ben Scott.” Then she reportedly wrote a Facebook post reading, “Massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6 p.m.”
CWBChicago added that the FBI discovered that a supposed shooting threat came from a TextNow account connected to Williams’ iCloud and IP address.
Williams allegedly admitted to the scheme and said that she did it to get time off work.
On Sunday, the Lawndale resident was charged with a felony count of making a false terrorism threat and was held in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Williams is being held in Cook County Jail and will be back in court next Monday.
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