A Texas man has agreed to plead guilty to going on social media and threatening to shoot people at an LGBTQ+ parade as vengeance for the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
Joshua Wayne Cole signed federal court filings indicating that he planned to plead guilty to a charge of interstate threatening communications at a hearing tentatively set for 16 October, about a month after he was arrested in connection with online posts threatening to open fire on a Pride parade in Abilene, Texas.
The resident of Anson, Texas, could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, though defendants who plead guilty before their trials do not typically face maximum punishments.
Related: Inside a US parents’ group chat about raising kids in violent times
Cole fell under authorities’ scrutiny on 18 September after those preparing to host the Abilene Pride parade took notice of his threatening Facebook posts and reported them to local police. Police then notified the FBI, as tensions across the US were heightened in the aftermath of Kirk’s killing.
Responding to a message about how the organizers of the 20 September Abilene Pride parade had announced that no weapons would be allowed at their event, one of the posts in question said: “Fk their parade, I say we lock and load and pay them back for taking out Charlie Kirk.”
Cole allegedly continued: “Theres only like 30 of em we can send a clear message to the rest of them.” And, using a term used to demean LGBTQ+ people, Cole also wrote: “Come on bro let’s go hunting fairies.”
The posts alluded to certain aspects of the investigation into Kirk’s shooting death on 10 September at Utah Valley University (UVU). Citing investigators’ interviews with people close to the suspect in the case, Utah prosecutors have alleged Tyler Robinson, 22, killed Kirk after becoming sick of what he perceived to be the activists’s “hatred”. Investigators maintain that they were told by Robinson’s family that he had become “more pro-gay and trans rights-oriented” in the year prior to Kirk’s killing.
An FBI agent reported trying to confront Cole at his place of employment in Abilene. But an employee there said Cole – describing him as a “hot head” – had already quit his job there and angrily stormed out of the facility, federal prosecutors wrote in court records.
Abilene police, accompanied by the FBI agent investigating him, pulled Cole over while he was driving a day later. Cole agreed to speak about his “online activity” with the FBI agent, admitted to posting the comments that had gotten investigators’ attention and added that he did “not believe that the gay pride event should be allowed”, prosecutors said.
Authorities arrested Cole at that point, and he was later ordered detained without bail until the resolution of the case against him.
Nonetheless, that did not deter the Abilene Pride Alliance organizing the parade that was threatened by Cole from requesting extra security for the event, prosecutors noted. And, prosecutors wrote, McMurry University canceled their participation at the parade after sponsoring a float for the event because Cole’s posts left the school “fearful of the students being hurt or killed”.
Cole signed on 5 October the documents signaling his intent to plead guilty, court records show. His attorney, Russell Lorfing, did not immediately return requests for comment.
As a result of Kirk’s death, the Trump administration has vociferously promised to crackdown on leftwing groups who generally opposed the Turning Point USA founder’s views, arguing that those organizations were also to blame for his killing. It did not, however, announce or comment on Cole’s arrest.
