NEW: Holy Cross Student Held on $1 Million Bond for Movie Theater Shooting Threats
Monday, December 17, 2012
Holy Cross student Gregory Hamalian was arraigned in Worcester District Court on Monday on charges of making terroristic threats and four counts of threatening to commit a crime after posting online that he planned to shoot up a movie theater in Massachusetts. (For more on the original threat, go here).
Hamalian, 21, of West Bridgewater, was arrested on Friday and posted $10,000 cash bail on Saturday. However, due to the serious ramifications of the charges against him, Judge David Locke set his bail at $1 million, or $100,000 cash, and Hamalian was taken back into custody.
If Hamalian is released on bail, the District Attorney's Office requested that he be placed under house arrest and that his location be monitored during limited windows of time outside his home.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn court, prosecutor Marc Dupuis said that a post that appeared on the website 4chan.org detailed a plan to shoot up a movie theater in Massachusetts using automatic weapons and smoke grenades during a midnight showing of The Hobbit. The post also made reference to "my hero James Holmes," the suspect charged in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado earlier this year.
The threats also made reference to shooting up the FBI building and that it would be "the biggest shooting in U.S. history."
Law enforcement obtained the poster's IP address from 4chan.org and were able to trace it back to Holy Cross. Officials at the school helped police locate the dorm room where the post originated, which belonged to Hamalian.
A court date was set for January 11, 2013.
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