Threat of mass shooting in Times Square could be hacker trolls

A cryptic image of a mass shooting threat in Times Square by a man went viral on social media Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

“If you're thinking of going to Times Square tomorrow, don't!!” “, we read in an article that has been republished more than 30,000 times and nearly 100,000 likes.

The threat also made the rounds on Reddit.

According to a low-quality screenshot, posted in what looks like an Instagram story, one email appears to show the person writing that they will go to Times Square and kill “as many people as possible.”

Above the text is an image and a name.

As disconcerting as it may seem, the threatened name appears to be linked to a group of hackers, suggesting that it is an attempt to frame or troll someone.

“I will be armed with an AR-15, several other handguns, full body armor, a gas mask and much more,” the post states.

“I will be streaming it live on Kick and Twitch respectively and will also have a full manifesto on my phone and computer that I will post ahead of my plan,” the post continues.

There is also a line titled “My address”, with a gray bar censoring a house. Uncensored screenshots showing the address were also shared on social media.

The NYPD's Midtown South Precinct did not immediately respond to questions about the seriousness of the threat or whether it had interviewed anyone about it.

An X account with a similar name to the man was suspended, with some posters pointing to an archived post from the account that appears to have made a similar threat in December.

“On December 25th I'm going to @MSB_Hospital in Brooklyn with pipe bombs and I'm going to blow up the entire building, mark my words.”

It is unclear whether the account was suspended following this post or more recently and whether it is actually affiliated with the individual.

A Kick account with the same name also appears to have disappeared, and a search for the man's name on Twitch yielded no results.

But some posters speculated that the man named in the post was not actually behind the threat.

“Sorry – as far as Twitter is concerned, they probably both belong to him or his idiot friends who are framing him,” posted @bx_on_x, pointing out the account's potential association with a hacking group.

Another X account with the man's name in its bio also began circulating, sharing photos of someone posing with a gun, their computer and cash, their face obscured by a Bitcoin logo . That account included a reference to ACG, an alleged hacking group that the FBI says is behind Bitcoin heists and other crimes.

It is possible that the viral screenshot was an attempt at trolling by or against the hacker group.

A Telegram channel from March containing an alleged dox of the person is full of insults against the man named as being behind the threat, as well as videos of him in what looks like a school hallway making out calling him a “cuckold” and contact information for people they say are his family.

His allegedly doxed rhetoric in March publications also fits the discourse on the uncensored version of the Times Square viral threat.

An alleged family member included in the dox did not immediately respond to questions about the case and another number was out of service.

Comments posted in 2022 on the cybersecurity blog Krebs Security also appear to attempt to blame the man named in the threat for various crimes detailed in an article about online “violence for hire” networks.

The man named in the viral threat did not immediately respond to emails included in his dox.

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