Authorities in St. Louis, Missouri, arrested a man dressed as the iconic Batman villain The Joker for making terroristic threats on Facebook Live. Police said that Jeremy J. Garnier began filming the hour-long video from his bedroom as he got into costume.
Once Garnier was dressed, he got into his car and tried to visit the St. Louis Galleria. He was asked to leave by security and then headed to the Delmar Loop, a popular area filled with bars, restaurants, and shops. While driving, he started threatening to kill people.
"Yes, I'm doing this for attention, but the attention I seek is to take over the world," he said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I'm going to start killing people until this reaches 1,000 [viewers], and once it reaches 1,000, I'm going to go out in public, and I'm going to kill more. We're not going to go to any movie theaters. We're going to go totally unarmed because we don't want to alert the authorities into thinking we might be on an actual rampage."
Garnier then parked his car and went to a Blueberry Hill restaurant. The host asked him for identification, which he said he did not have. He was eventually seated and asked the server for a Sprite.
"Yeah, I can't be inebriated when I'm planning on, you know, killing a bunch of people," he said. "It's not something you can do. I'm live on Facebook right now. I've got like nearly 2,000 people watching me."
Later in the video, he says that he is not armed, but suggested he had planted bombs.
"I'm not armed, and I weigh 150 pounds," he said. "I don't have no weapons on me. I'm not going to do nothing. You've got me messed up. Except all these bombs."
Somebody in the restaurant became concerned about his comments and called the police.
"I think they're looking for me, but it's OK," Garnier said when he saw a police car pulling into the parking lot.
Officers came into the restaurant and took him into custody without incident. A judge ordered Garnier held without bail. He is facing felony charges of making a terrorist threat. Garnier has a lengthy criminal history, which includes multiple burglary convictions.
Photo: St. Louis Police Department