Lexington man federally charged for threatening YouTube comments

Lexington, KY–A Fayette County man has been federally charged with a felony, threatening communications in interstate commerce [18 USC 875(c)], in the United States District Court’s Eastern District of Kentucky. According to an affidavit by FBI agent Chelsea Holliday, YouTube’s parent company, Google, reached out to the FBI regrading some comments the man made on the site this month.

In one comment, the man, who had previously done time for assaulting a law enforcement officer, says some eyebrow raising things:

Yeah my 12 year old son was giving an ok to practice his jumper on private college basketball court…I was watching across the street I seen an police officer walk up to him. I broke and ran straight up on him. I ask him why u talking to my kid. U could tell he was a jerk. But I did tell him he was giving an ok by the people at the front office he could play. I told him clear ass day I will defend my child and don’t ask me for my ID. He looked at me and got back in his car and left. I had my 9mm on me. Yeah over my kid that cop will get shot in the face…imma empty the whole clip

October 6, 2022 YouTube comment

Man we going to have to start shooting and executing cops

October 4, 2022 YouTube comment

The man was identified and turned out to have some alarming posts on his Twitter, as well:

Twitter posts from federally charged Lexington, KY man

Google provided the FBI with the personal information of the YouTube user, including phone numbers and IP addresses for both their Google accounts. The FBI traced one of the IPs to Lexington’s Central Library, which is was only a few miles away from the man’s home.

The FBI agent says the man’s rhetoric was alarming for a number of reasons:

In my training and experience, many individuals who commit violent offenses, escalate their threatening behavior in the way- has. His comments on Twitter in 2020 and 2021 showed a clear disdain for law enforcement and were threatening. Furthermore, – more recent comments in September and October 2022, escalated to another level where is explicitly calling for violence against, or death to, ”white people” and law enforcement officers, and stating he himself will “shoot” or “kill” them. Based on- comments, it is reasonably believed that his intention was to threaten those individuals, “white people” and law enforcement officers, including the unidentified police officer he mentioned in his YouTube comment on October 6, 2022.

FBI Agent Chelsea Holliday

The man is being detained at the Fayette County Detention Center.