Man arrested for threats referencing Boston Marathon
Police in St. Louis say suspect made online threats to use explosive device near World Series stadium
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
ST. LOUIS — St. Louis police have arrested a social media manager for allegedly making online threats invoking the Boston Marathon bombings as the Red Sox prepared to play the Cardinals at Busch Stadium in the World Series.
A probable cause statement released Tuesday said Robert Metzinger’s former employer at a St. Louis marketing firm alerted police last week to several threatening Twitter posts from an account that has since been disabled. Police say the tweets referenced the April bombings and the use of a pressure cooker.
The probable cause statement did not quote the tweets directly but referred to an “implied threat to use an explosive device in or around the area of Busch Stadium during the upcoming World Series” and listed Metzinger’s work address at an office located eight blocks from the Cardinals’ downtown stadium.
Police Chief Sam Dotson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he didn’t know if the 31-year-old planned to act on the threats, but he “wasn’t going to take any chances with the safety of the fans and Major League Baseball.”
Metzinger was charged with a misdemeanor offense of making a threat with criminal negligence with regard to the risk of causing evacuation/quarantine/closure of any portion of a building or place of assembly.
Court records don’t list an attorney for Metzinger, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He was released on bond and is scheduled to return to court in late November.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
The Times of Israel Community.