Texas Man Arrested For Threatening Mass Shooting At NFL Playoff Game

A man from San Antonio, Texas, was arrested by police officials after he threatened a mass shooting at the playoff’s between Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers during the National Football League’s (NFL) divisional round on Jan. 14.

According to the arrest affidavit, the suspect is a 30-year-old man named Yuttana Choochongkol who made several threats to not only kill NFL players and fans but himself during the course of the match in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Heinz Field.

As per a report in the ABC-affiliated television station, KSAT-TV, Choochongkol sent a threat to a CBS owned-and-operated television station, KDKA-TV, in Pittsburgh. The threat read: "This Sunday's playoff game in Pittsburgh is going to be like no other. Why? Because it's going to be my last day on this pathetic planet. So why not take some innocent lives with me? The Steelers game will be packed, and that's when I plan on killing Steelers football players and fans before taking my own pitiful life. After all, what does a person that is going to commit suicide have to lose? Absolutely nothing. So why not take out some million dollar Steelers players before me? Sounds like a good idea. Hahahahahah."

Reports stated that on the very same day that the television station received the first threat, the director of security for Heinz Field also received a threat note from Choochongkol.

Following the threat messages, both Heinz Field officials and KDKA-TV sent the IP address to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which they then traced to Worldwide Clinical Trials in San Antonio.

It was after going through the security cameras and speaking to co-workers that police authorities were able to identify Choochongkol as a suspect.

The arrest affidavit also clarified that according to the Worldwide Clinical Trials, Choochonkol was a medical trial subject with the company. He was charged with making a terroristic threat to the public.

In a fairly similar incident in October 2017, Oklahoma police arrested a man after he posted multiple Facebook updates in which he threatened a mass shooting in San Antonio.

The man was identified as 39-year-old Roderick Lamar Robinson and he was arrested and charged with a terrorism hoax under Oklahoma law. He also faced a charge in Bexar County, Texas, for making terroristic threats. Apart from this, Robinson already had an active warrant in his name out of Bexar County for possession of marijuana. Robinson, who went by by Rod Lamar on Facebook posted several updates on how he had planned to "kill all" patrons in the area. "It's war b------ a [sic] no one is safe on the strip," he had written in a post.