A deranged Missouri man was apprehended after he threatened to shoot students at a high school “in the name of Kyle Rittenhouse,” authorities said.
On Saturday, the 27-year-old deranged man, Mitchell Lovelace, posted on Snapchat that he is planning to open fire at Festus High School in honor of the Illinois teen, charging documents cited by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailed the threat.
Last month, Rittenhouse, 18, was discharged completely of all charges in the shootings that resulted in the death of two men and injured a third victim during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.
According to Jefferson County prosecutors, Lovelace was later arrested at his Festus home and charged with making a terrorist threat.
“I’m going to shoot Festus High School students in the name of Kyle Rittenhouse,” Lovelace’s post read, KMOV reported.
The charging documents also show another post by Lovelace, which warned that “no wonder schools get shot, the news just proved we can get away with it especially if it’s a [expletive] like Festus.”
Prior to making this new threat, Lovelace had previously taken to social media and threatened to kill police officers and a former president, as well as his parents and taking his own life, prosecutors said.
After being informed of Lovelace’s threat, Festus R-6 school district officials put school resource officers on heightened patrol following the alleged threat of gun violence, according to KSDK.
Mitchell Lovelace’s Facebook profile from Festus indicates that he attended Festus High School.
