Santa Ana Man Convicted Of Cyberstalking, Threatening Families Of Parkland Shooting Victims On Instagram
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — A Santa Ana man has been convicted of cyberstalking and sending kidnapping threats to the families of the victims of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.
Brandon Michael Fleury, 22, was convicted by a federal jury in South Florida Tuesday of interstate transmission of a threat to kidnap and interstate cyberstalking. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison.
Seventeen people were killed and another 17 wounded in the February 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Prosecutors say Fleury stalked and threatened to kidnap the families of the victims on Instagram.
Fleury used 13 different Instagram accounts, using aliases including alleged Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz and notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, to target the families and friends of Parkland shooting victims over three weeks between Dec. 22, 2018 and Jan. 11 of this year, according to evidence presented at trial.
Many of the messages, some sent under Cruz's name and with his picture, were taunts about the deaths of loved ones in the Parkland shooting, including one that said, "I'm your abductor I'm kidnapping you fool." Other messages sent under the user name "the.douglas.shooter" that also had Cruz's picture said, "With the power of my AR-15, you all die" and "With the power of my AR-15, I take your loved ones away from you PERMANENTLY."
Law enforcement officials found thousands of saved images of Ted Bundy, images of the targeted victims and saved screenshots of the messages he sent to the victims on his tablets, prosecutors said.
Fleury is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2.