Texas teen posts video threatening to infect Walmart shoppers with coronavirus: 'I will shorten your life'
CARROLLTON, TEXAS: Police in Texas are looking for a teenager for "willfully spreading" the novel coronavirus after she had claimed in a series of Snapchat videos that she had tested positive for the virus.
The teenager, who has been identified by authorities in Carrollton, near Dallas, as 18-year-old Lorraine Maradiaga had shot the videos across multiple locations, according to NBCDFW.
One of the videos had seemingly been shot at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site in the state as a health care professional can be heard telling Maradiaga that she needs to go home and wait for test results.
In another video, Maradiaga shows herself shopping at a location that she claims is a local Walmart. "I'm here at Walmart about to infest every (expletive), because if I'm going down, all you (expletive) are going down," she says in the clip.
The same video later cuts to her car, where she filmed herself coughing into the camera. "If you want to get the coronavirus and (expletive) die, call me," she tells her followers. "I'll meet you up and (cough, cough) and I will shorten your life."
Police said that Maradiaga is now facing a charge of making a terroristic threat even if it turns out that she did not have the illness.
"We have no confirmation Maradiaga is actually a threat to public health," Carrollton Police said in a statement. "We are, however, taking her social media actions very seriously."
Jolene DeVito, a Carrollton police spokeswoman, told NBC News it was unclear when the videoes were recorded. "People started tagging us and sharing the videos on Saturday," she said.
The police said they checked her home but that she wasn't there. They added that her family was cooperating and hoped the 18-year-old would surrender.
They have advised anyone with any information regarding her whereabouts to contact 466-3333 or CrimeTips@CityofCarrollton.com.
This is not the first time that law enforcement in the country has promised to prosecute someone for pulling a "prank" amidst the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen more than 360,000 Americans across the country fall ill with the novel coronavirus.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that Missouri police arrested Cody Pfister, 26, after he posted a video on Twitter that showed him running his tongue on several items as he looks directly at the camera. "Who's scared of coronavirus?" he taunts viewers in the short-clip, which he uploaded with the caption, "I'm a nasty moths f*****."
The video was ultimately watched over 4 million times and caught the attention of Warrenton Police, who said their department had been contacted by people in the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Pfister was subsequently taken into custody and charged by the Warren County Prosecuting Attorney's Office with a terrorist threat in the second degree.
Court documents filed in connection to the case said the 26-year-old "knowingly caused a false belief or fear that a condition involving danger to life existed" and accuse him of acting with "reckless disregard of the risk causing the evacuation, quarantine or closure of any portion."