COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A man is in jail after police say he threatened to kill people at a gay club using a social dating app. The threat had police on high alert near gay bars. NBC4 spoke to the man who received the threat and called police.
On June 16th, 2016, 49 people were murdered inside of the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. The LGBTQIA community immediately relived the fear from that day when police told them Me’shach Miller made a threat.
David Emerson is a service manager at Union Cafe. He said security was high alert.
“Word spreads fast in this community. It was probably one of the scariest weekends ever knowing there was someone out there who dislike us so much that they wanted to kill us. That’s awful,” said Emerson.
Court records show Miller said in part, he would kill 85 people at a gay club. In that threat was an explicit derogatory term used against homosexuals. It was a message authorities said he sent to Montrese Hollar, who then contacted police. Police tracked Miller down through the app.
“His response back was completely off the wall. When he mentioned 85 in my community. I’ve been an activist in my community since I was a teenager, and I just couldn’t let that go by,” said Hollar. Read more via NBC
Man who threatened to ‘kill 85 faggots at a gay club’ arrested
A man who threatened to “kill 85 faggots at a gay club” in messages sent on Grindr has been arrested. Me’Schach D. Israel-Miller, from Columbus, Ohio, reportedly sent the threatening messages on the gay dating app on March 1.
The message is doubly menacing as Israel-Miller would have had to be in a similar area to the user he was threatening, given Grindr’s location-based nature.
Following the threat, police put extra officers on duty in the gay district. Sergeant Nick Konves, the LGBT Diversity/Inclusion Liaison at the Columbus Police Department, has said that he hopes Israel-Miller will also face a hate crime charge.
“The LGBT community asked that I express their appreciation for the extra resources from Zones four & five that were placed in the Short North this weekend due to the threat,” said Konves. Read more via Pink News