ORLANDO, Fla. – A Winter Park man is facing a felony charge of making an online threat to shoot people at an unspecified Walmart store in Central Florida.
- Winter Park man charged with making online threat
- Richard Clayton threatened to shoot people at Walmart
- Threat came a day after El Paso mass shooting
Richard Clayton, 26, was arrested as part of a joint investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and Winter Park Police Department.
Investigators say Clayton posted on Facebook: “3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back. Don’t go to Walmart next week.”
The threat was posted August 4, one day after a gunman killed 22 people in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in what federal agents say was a racist and hate-inspired attack.
FDLE agents say Clayton also follows the ideology of white supremacy and has used various fake aliases to post racist content on Facebook and social media.
“Due to the close proximity of time that Richard Dean Clayton posted on August 4, 2019 “3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back. Don’t go to Walmart next week” and the mass shooting that took place on August 3, 2019 in El Paso, Texas at a Walmart involving an assault rifle, the posted threat by Richard Dean Clayton is considered to be credible,” FDLE agents wrote in an arrest report. “Your affiant has a series concern for the well-being of the citizens of the State of Florida.”
Florida Department of Corrections confirmed Clayton was three days from completing a year-long probation related to a 2011 DUI conviction out of Seminole County. Court records show he was also arrested previously on marijuana charges and last year for disorderly intoxication after swimming naked during a Clearwater offshore boat race.
The arrest affidavit also indicates that Clayton was belligerent to officers while en-route to jail. He reportedly told an officer he hoped "the next call you go to you get blown away and killed" and decided to expose himself in the police cruiser, threatening to urinate in the car.
Clayton is facing a second degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
The judge set the bail at $15,000. He also is prohibited from being within 1,000 feet of any Walmart, and he's not able to own or possess firearms.
Clayton had yet to be released from the Orange County Jail as of late Monday afternoon.
“Law enforcement has zero tolerance for threats being made and will utilize the full force of the Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure the public safety,” FDLE said in a statement after Clayton’s arrest. “If you See Something, Say Something. Call 855-FLA-SAFE or 911 to report suspicious activity.”
Security experts say Clayton’s arrest shows law enforcement’s ability to become more proactive as opposed to reactive.
“There’s a common thread between the rhetoric on social media because if you go back and study these mass shootings they were always some type of precursor that was either written on social media or a manifesto that they caught later,” said James Kopenhaver.
Kopenhaver is a 30-plus year law enforcement veteran, retired from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, now working as a private investigator and security expert.
Kopenhaver said there have been efforts to better trace potential threats, but there is still a need for more real time social media monitoring by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. He also said that while lawmakers have made strides in addressing legal routes to help law enforcement, more can be done.
“Florida’s red flag law isn’t that much different than what we have on the books, but I think what it’s going to do is gain more attention from the public to reach out to lawmakers to say you guys need to do something a nonpartisan basis and fix this and start the process to identify who is a mass shooter and who is not a mass shooter,” Kopenhaver said.