The anonymity of the Internets brings out the worst in commenters, and it can have a dire consequences. The Seattle PI reports that Eric Ting Yee was arrested in Los Angeles on Monday (September 17th) for threatening to kill teenagers on an ESPN.com comment thread on a story last week about the price of LeBron James’ new signature sneakers.
A California man accused of posting comments on ESPN’s website saying he was watching kids and wouldn’t mind killing them was in jail Tuesday on $1 million bail after he was arrested for investigation of making terrorist threats, authorities said.
Several guns were found Monday at the home of former Yale University student Eric Yee, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Steve Low.
Yee was arrested after the sports network ESPN reported threatening posts were made in a reader response section to an online ESPN story on Thursday about new Nike sneakers named after LeBron James that cost $270 a pair. Some of the nearly 3,000 reader comments on the story talked about children possibly getting killed over the sneakers because of how expensive they are, said ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys.
The shoe in question, the Nike LeBron X was initially reported as costing $315 at retail for a version that features Nike+ technology that allows users to digitally track their athletic performance. The ESPN.com story in question noted that the aforementioned model would now retail for $270.
The Los Angeles Daily News reports:
Eric Ting Yee wrote on an ESPN Web forum “that he could see children from where he was at and had no problem murdering them,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Darren Harris said Tuesday.
Yee also likened what he would like to do to the Aurora, CO massacre. Threatening children is a line that should never be crossed, so props to ESPN for snitching on this idiot.
[Spotted at Deadspin]
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