Montana Teen Arrested For Threatening Facebook Friend With Gun Over ‘Star Wars’ Spoiler


An 18-year-old Montana resident was jailed Friday after threatening to shoot a person he befriended on Facebook, simply because that friend revealed a spoiler about Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

When a movie as big as the latest Star Wars installment comes out, it is natural for spoilers to leak out on the Internet. Not everyone gets to see the movie when it opens in the theaters, and most don’t want their enjoyment ruined by someone giving away a major part of the movie’s plot.

The J.J. Abrams-directed film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opened in theaters Friday evening to much anticipation from members of the audience, and Star Wars fans in general. One particular Star Wars fan took things seriously when someone passed on a critical spoiler to him, potentially ruining his future viewing of the film.

Arthur Charles Roy of Helena, Montana, was reportedly chatting online with a boy he had befriended on Facebook about the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise.

During their conversation, the friend revealed certain plot points of the movie to him. Roy then allegedly became upset with his friend and sent the boy a photo of himself holding a gun. Roy apparently claimed the gun was a Colt 1911 semi-automatic and that it had a “hair trigger.”

Roy then reportedly told the boy he would come to his school during the lunch period Friday to “find him” and “get him,” and that he would shoot him over revealing spoilers of the Star Wars plot.

The boy was then concerned by the threats and worried that Roy would come to his home or to his school in Helena and he called a school resource officer about the threats.

According to the Washington Post, despite the fact that the Facebook photo and online threats relating to the Star Wars spoilers were deleted soon after they were posted, other students had witnessed the exchange and were “uneasy,” and those students also reported the incident to the school the following day, which prompted a lockdown of the school by police in case Roy should follow through with his threats. The police then arrested Roy on Friday afternoon.

While the Facebook posts and photo were deleted, TMZ has managed to procure the image of Roy holding a gun in a threatening way as well as a blurred out copy of the spoiler, which says: “XXXXXXXX dies in the new Star Wars.”

“Told you I would do it.”

The TMZ article reports that Roy has posted several scary photos in the past and reveals a couple of them on their web page.

When police arrested Roy, he reportedly refused to speak with them about the alleged threats.

When Roy’s mother demanded to know why her son was being detained, reportedly, police told her about the Facebook interactions relating to the spoilers her son’s friend had posted about the Star Wars film, the photograph, and Roy’s threats against his Facebook friend.

People obtained the court documents relating to the case, in which Roy was detained by Lewis and Clark County prosecutors on a single felony assault with a weapon charge. Although Roy had told his friend the gun was a Colt, it turned out it was actually a BB gun.

According to their article, the arrest report read, “Defendant’s mother asked why Defendant was being arrested since it was only a BB gun that was on the Defendant’s Facebook page.”

Reportedly, Roy has since posted $10,000 bail for his release and the Washington Post reports that Roy was no longer in jail on Wednesday. According to People their attempts to contact Roy’s attorney Wednesday were unsuccessful.

[Photo via LucasFilm]

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