Lollapalooza guard arrested for allegedly faking shooting threat to “leave work early”

A Lollapalooza security guard has been arrested and charged for allegedly creating a fake "mass shooting" threat in hopes of “leaving work early”.

The threat was circulated by an anonymous mass text message, sent through the text message platform TextNow, which reportedly said “Mass shooting at 4pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets.”

18-year-old guard Janya Williams reportedly circulated this message to her supervisor at 2.48:PM on the second day of the Chicago festival (Friday, July 29).

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NBC Chicago reports that Williams also allegedly told her manager that her sister had seen posts on Facebook about a mass shooting being planned for the event.

When asked to take a screenshot of this threat, Williams supposedly made a fake Facebook account under the name “Ben Scott” and wrote a post that read “massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6 p.m.”

Prosecutors claim that she took a photo of the post without posting it and send the image to her supervisor.

The FBI and Chicago Police also found that the original message sent through TextNow was linked to Williams’ IP address and iCloud account.

When Williams was questioned at the CPD command post, she allegedly admitted to sending the text message and creating a fake Facebook account.

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She was charged by Cook County prosecutors with creating a fake terrorist threat, which is a crime.

Williams was required by Judge Mary Marubio to pay a $5,000 bail deposit in order to leave the house under electronic monitoring.

In addition, she was told that she had to pay a $500 bail deposit for breaking the terms of her release in an ongoing misdemeanour retail theft case.

Williams is still in jail and is awaiting her next court appearance - which is due to take place on August 8.

This year’s Lollapalooza line-up included the likes of Black Coffee, J Cole, Dua Lipa, Denzel Curry, Charli XCX, Pinkpantheress, James Hype and more. It took place between July 28 and July 31 in Chicago.

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Aneesa Ahmed is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter