Woman arrested over ‘terroristic threats’ to murder people at Pride event
A woman has been arrested under anti-terror laws after she made threats to murder people at a Pride event.
Rosalyn Colligan, 40, was arrested in Buffalo, New York on Sunday (June 3), over threats she is alleged to have posted on social media directed at participants in an LGBT event.
Police say that Colligan is charged under a state law that prohibits “making a terroristic threat”, considered a felony in New York.
According to Buffalo Police Department, she had threatened to attack the Buffalo Pride Parade, which took place later the same day (June 3).
Speaking to local outlet WGRZ, Capt. Jeff Rinaldo said: “There is a very delicate balance between freedom of speech, and speech that becomes threatening, harassing, alarming, and annoying.
“She had a series of posts threatening to come to the pride event at Canalside and murder people.
“The posts were very explicit, and they had threatened to ‘shoot the event up’ as well as to bring a series of knives and commit heinous acts.”
He added: “As we’ve seen unfortunately around the country, there’s often warning signs that pop up before one of these events, with people afterward saying law enforcement didn’t respond. In Buffalo, we will respond to these threats.”
Rindalo added: “We especially want to stress to parents and school age children that when these threats are posted, there are serious penalties which can have serious consequences later on in life if someone has a criminal charge on their record for doing this.”
She remained in jail Monday on $100,000 bail.
