Michigan Man Gets Probation For Threatening To Kill Children — And Jews
(JTA) — A Michigan man who used Twitter to threaten to kill children and Jews in mass shooting attacks was sentenced to two years of probation.
A judge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday gave David Lenio, 29, the probation sentence after giving him credit for the four months he served in jail after his February arrest, which ended after his trial in June.
A jury in June acquitted Lenio of two felonies, and convicted him of the lesser charge of malicious use of telecommunications. He was released from prison on his own recognizance following the June trial.
In addition to probation, Lenio was ordered to stay away from synagogues and schools and to not use computers, Fox17 in West Michigan reported.
The threats made on Twitter when he was in Montana included a tweet saying he wanted to execute 30 or more grade school children — to exceed the number killed at Sandy Hook in December 2012.
He also posted tweets about shooting up a synagogue, and that he wanted to put two bullets “in the head” of a rabbi or Jewish leader, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
