Reminder: Tweeting Death Threats to Politicians "in Character" Is a Very Dumb Idea
On Friday, Capitol Hill police arrested Uber driver Kyler Schmitz over a series of tweets he allegedly sent Missouri Senator Roy Blunt in the wake the Orlando shooting, including a promise to shoot Blunt “in the head” for “allowing someone to murder my loved ones,” NBC News reports.
@RoyBlunt I'm going to shoot you in the head for allowing someone to murder my loved ones. pic.twitter.com/76Lcc6xctj
— Chirperson Knowed (@Chirperson) June 14, 2016
According to prosecutors, Schmitz admitted to “purposefully” sending the “direct threat.” According to fiancé Paul Cianciolo, the threat wasn’t sent by Schmitz “as a real person” but by the parody persona (apparently @Chirperson) he used on Twitter.
Schmitz may have thought his violent messages constituted an equally outrageous response to congressional inaction after a direct attack on his “family,” but the joke failed to land: On Monday, a judge ordered Schmitz held until further proceedings, saying, “I don’t know how to read these tweets in any way but as threatening.”
@HouseGOP @SenateGOP I can't wait to shoot you in the face one by one
— Chirperson Knowed (@Chirperson) June 13, 2016
And how could he not?