Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Man charged with threatening to kill Trump after filming 'joke' Facebook video while wearing shower curtain

'I need to find the Donald because if I don't find him, I am going to have to blow up Broward County,' man allegedly said

Vincent Wood
Saturday 11 January 2020 02:31 GMT
Comments
Authorities charged Mr Lump with threatening to kill President Trump in retaliation for the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Authorities charged Mr Lump with threatening to kill President Trump in retaliation for the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

A Florida man who allegedly threatened to kill Donald Trump in a live-streamed video while dressed in a shower curtain has insisted he was only joking.

Chauncy Lump, 26, is accusing of threatening to “blow up” the 3,400 square kilometre region of Broward County in a seven-minute clip - which came in the immediate aftermath of the US airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

The Fort Lauderdale resident, who is employed as a security guard, appeared in the video with his face covered in white cream and a towel wrapped around his head.

He faces federal charges for threatening to kill the president and making a false bomb threat.

"He killed my leader, please tell me where is Donald Trump?" Mr Lump said in a video posted to Facebook under the name BlackMan vs America. He added: "He killed my leader and I have to kill him"

Court filings said Mr Lump was “wearing a towel on his head in the style of a turban” and “middle-eastern sounding music was playing in the background of the video”.

Mr Lump continued: “I need to find the Donald because if I don't find him, I am going to have to blow up Broward County … so please tell me where he is, I don’t want to have to blow up Broward County tonight. Don’t play with me I have an AK47, I have it here.”

He then proceeded to raise what appeared to be a loaded magazine for an AK47 assault rifle, according to arrest paperwork filed by Secret Service agent Lucas White.

Federal agents were alerted to the case after the video was handed over by an employee at Facebook.

While court filings did not specify where Mr Lump worked as a security guard, they did confirm he had a license to carry a concealed weapon.

Agents said that when confronted at his home on Saturday by Florida police and the Secret Service, Mr Lump admitted producing the video in response to Soleimani's death, but “said that he was just joking around and had no intention of carrying through with any of the above threats”.

However he “acknowledged that the implication of the statements that he made in the video imply that he wanted to harm or kill Donald Trump and blow up – with explosives or bombs - parts of Broward County”.

Additional reporting by AP.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in