More Arrests Follow Threats to Walmart Stores

13-year-old is among those charged
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 11, 2019 10:02 AM CDT
More Arrests Follow Threats to Walmart Stores
Springfield police respond to a Walmart in Springfield, Mo., on Thursday after a heavily armed man went to the store.   (Harrison Keegan/The Springfield News-Leader via AP)

A man was arrested at home in south Texas on Saturday on a charge of making a terrorist threat involving a local Walmart, the Dallas Morning News reports. Police say the man had said he planned a shooting at the store that morning. In a city nearby, police had arrested a 13-year-old after threats were posted on Instagram involving a Walmart store in Weslaco. He was taken into juvenile custody on Thursday, per KGBT, charged with making terrorist threats. In Missouri, a heavily armed man had set off a panic Thursday when he walked into a Walmart in Springfield.

This has all happened in the week since a man who said he was targeting Mexicans opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 22 people. Other investigations haven't resulted in arrests yet. Threats posted online involving an unspecified Walmart in Kansas City have prompted an investigation. The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and local police are working on the case, per the Kansas City Star. Evidently, many people saw the threat. "We are getting a ton of messages right now regarding a threat of violence at a local Walmart that was posted on Reddit and elsewhere," police posted Friday night. CNN counts eight threats made to Walmarts since the El Paso shooting. (Walmart is making a change in its stores.)

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