A Florida man has been arrested after he threatened to “kill 20 people” in a mass shooting on Twitch.
On December 9, 33-year-old Lowell Thomas Schoonmaker allegedly posted threatening remarks on Twitch while chatting on a stream.
According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI was tipped off to the comments by another Twitch user in the same chat after Schoonmaker posted, “Mass murder coming soon.”
“Today I’m going to kill 20 people, have a nice day,” he reportedly wrote, in addition to remarks about wanting to “destroy the world.”
FBI tip leads to arrest of Twitch viewer
Following the tip to the FBI, detectives looked into the account and were able to trace its IP address. It wasn’t long before they discovered who the account belonged to, as well as his home in Boca Raton.
During questioning, Schoonmaker confirmed the Twitch account was his and admitted to making the “stupid comments,” but denied the threats were serious.
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Schoonmaker claimed he was intoxicated and depressed when he made the disturbing statements. The user claimed that the death of his grandfather made him want to kill himself as a result.
He went on to say that he longer felt like harming himself and didn’t own any firearms.
On December 14, he was taken into custody and is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail. He’s been charged with written threats to kill or do bodily harm.
It’s not known what streamer Schoonmaker was making at the time he made the threats or if his account has been banned on the platform.
This isn’t the first time a Twitch user has been accused of making threats. Earlier this year, Zelda speedrunner Narcissawright, formerly known as CosmoWright, tweeted that she wanted to “shoot people at the Twitch HQ” after being banned on the site.
