Man arrested over Twitter threat to shoot random pedestrian

A 20-year-old man has been arrested in Los Angeles after writing on Twitter that he would shoot a random pedestrian if people retweeted his message 100 times on the social media website, police said on Friday.

Dakkari Dijon McAnuff posted a photo on his Twitter account earlier this week of a rifle resting on what appeared to be an upper floor balcony railing, pointed down at a darkened street, police said.

McAnuff posted, "100 RT's (retweets) and I'll shoot someone walking," according to police, who did not say if the message had been retweeted 100 times.

Police heard about the tweet on Wednesday and detectives managed to identify the location. McAnuff was arrested on Wednesday at his downtown Los Angeles home, where they found an air rifle but not a gun, police said.

Police said the air rifle, which shoots pellets or BBs using compressed air, could still cause injury and pose a threat.

"It still alarms people, it looks lethal," Los Angeles police spokesman Richard French said. "It's no different than someone who walks into a store with a fake butcher knife. It could be made of rubber, but that still scares people."

McAnuff was jailed on suspicion of making criminal threats and is being held on $50,000 bail. He has not been formally charged yet, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

It was not clear if McAnuff had retained a lawyer.

The Twitter account police said McAnuff used to post the threat has been taken down, the Los Angeles Times reported.

On another Twitter page listed under McAnuff's name someone posted after his arrest, "This account is being managed by Dakkari's close friends. This will be his new account."

Another post and a retweet said the incident that led to McAnuff's arrest was a "prank."

© Thomson Reuters 2014