Police arrest white supremacist for threatening Walmart attack

Arrest comes after series of recent threats to carry out attacks in Walmart supermarkets

A white supremacist has been arrested after he posted a message on Facebook threatening a shooting at a Walmart in Florida, police have said.

Richard Clayton, 26, was arrested after making an online threat on Friday, according to police, just days after a gunman stormed a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people. That suspect, Patrick Crusius, reportedly posted an anti-immigrant screed on the online messaging forum 8chan shortly before the mass shooting.

Mr Clayton reportedly wrote on Facebook: “3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back.”

“Don’t go to Walmart next week,” the post continued.

He was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily harm, according to Florida officials, who told the Associated Press he was held on $15,000 (£12,461) bond at the Orange County Jail.

The Florida Department of Law enforcement said in a statement: “Law enforcement has zero tolerance for threats being made and will utilise the full force of the Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure the public’s safety.”

The country has been on high alert amid a wave of deadly mass shootings and an apparent rise in domestic terror incidents which FBI Director Christopher Wray attributed to violent white supremacy during a public Senate hearing this summer.

A day before Mr Clayton’s arrest, a man was charged with “making a terrorist threat in the first degree" after walking into a Missouri Walmart earlier in the week donning full body armour while carrying multiple firearms and over 100 rounds of ammunition.

The suspect, 23-year-old Conor Climo from Las Vegas, reportedly possessed bomb-making materials and shared white supremacist and neo-Nazi sentiments with an undercover FBI agent.

Another Florida resident was charged with threatening an attack just one day after the Walmart shooting, calling one of the chain stores in the town of Gibsonton and reportedly threatening to “shoot up the store”.

There have also been a series of false alarms in recent weeks where crowds have mistaken loud noises for mass shootings, including in Times Square, New York.