Man Charged With Making Mass Shooting Threats Against UWF

September 25, 2020

A Pace man has been arrested for allegedly making numerous threats to commit a mass school shooting at the University of West Florida.

Shane Rei Davis, 23, was arrested by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the FBI after they acted on a confidential tip. He was charged with intimidation sending a written threat to conduct mass shoot and booked into te Santa Rosa County Jail with bond set at $1 million.

“The threats were very specific in nature and were taken extremely seriously by law enforcement,” SRSO Sgt. Rich Aloy said.

The threats were made while Davis talked to other gamers in the video game Valorant, described as a character based tactical shooter game.

According on a arrest report, Davis made the following comments via an in-game chat that was visible to other online players:

“I just have to get 34 kills to be a legend”
“But I calculate around 50″
“You will see the biggest school shooting”
“I’ll carry more ammo than these unprepared r******”
“I will be a legend”
“You will all feel my pain.
“Surprising Asian Americans are always the top of school shooters, right?”

“The University took immediate action and is cooperating with authorities to the fullest extent of the law,” UWF said in an email to students. “The safety of the campus community is the University’s top priority.”

Comments

14 Responses to “Man Charged With Making Mass Shooting Threats Against UWF”

  1. Advocate on September 28th, 2020 12:41 am

    I mean, yeah, it’s a good thing they acted early and got him. But I’m not sure he was really serious, if the only proof is the game chat then I don’t really think there was anything to REALLY worry about. Some gamers are edgy like this, a lot of people say stuff like this just as a joke. I’m aware it’s nothing to joke about, but still.

  2. David on September 27th, 2020 11:57 am

    @Games “He needs done to him what he was going to do to innocent people”?
    Makes your mentality the same as his. Its his issue as your issue is yours..own it!
    The mentality of some people with statements like that needs addressed
    Please seek professional help…hurting people does not fix them. Even so however you would enjoy that hurt it would appear.
    God speed

  3. Games on September 27th, 2020 10:16 am

    He needs help? He needs done to him what he was going to do to innocent people . THERES NO helping these people. If you feel helping him will work. Let him stay at your house with your kids. Help him destroy your family. Some cant be fixed.

  4. Susan on September 26th, 2020 2:10 pm

    My son in law has a high security job in the military. He and my daughter are gamers. They are very responsible people. Thanks to the gamers who police the gaming world! This young man needs psychiatric help ASAP.

  5. MAH on September 26th, 2020 10:48 am

    This guys has issues that go way beyond video games. I pray he gets the help he needs. Good job to the gamers who turned him in to the law. This could have ended up much worse.

  6. deBugger on September 26th, 2020 8:22 am

    If old Joe Martin was still working Central Stores @ UWF, this kinda crap would never happen.

    ;-)

    {shout out to the entire support crew, staff, faculty, etc.}

  7. mnon on September 26th, 2020 2:19 am

    @concerned: Really? You’ve been brainwashed by Oprah or some zealot church group telling everyone something is evil.

    I’ve been a gamer since pinball and my kids have been gamers since they could hold a controller and I know hundreds of people, parents and kids who are avid gamers. Guess what? We don’t go around making threats because of it.

    This is like the Dungeons & Dragons propaganda in the 80s saying it causes kids to kill people, commit suicide and become Satanists. This is the new era “D&D”.

    How about look at it from a much larger perspective. These kids doing these school shootings, killing friends and making threats are deeply disturbed. Just do the math if you can. There are millions of gamers, out of those millions you get a few disturbed individuals just like with anything else. There is a .0001% chance a gamer commits a mass shooting or murder.

    Get real.

  8. Ignorance Is Bliss on September 26th, 2020 12:37 am

    @melissa I ABSOLUTELY agree. I myself am a avid gamer, have been all my life. As you stated, if someone can’t distinguish video games and reality, something stems ALOT deeper than the video games. People want to argue either race, games, guns, anything they can put the blame on. It is a PHYSIOLOGICAL issue, it has to do with brain chemistry for crying out loud.

    Just thankful that he was apprehended BEFORE he carried out his threats.

  9. paul on September 25th, 2020 6:34 pm

    Take the threat deadly serious, his brazen attitude to take innocent lives warrants a long, long, stay in prison…a hater of mankind…no more games remove him from society.

  10. Melissa on September 25th, 2020 6:15 pm

    @concerned citizen BTW I have one child that is a full time student at UWF.

  11. Melissa on September 25th, 2020 6:09 pm

    @concerned citizen. Video games didn’t cause this. Always quick to blame something or someone else for what happens in the world. If a person doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality then they need psychiatric help. Also, I am 46 yrs old and me and two of the three kids I have are gamers. No one parents anymore either. They let screens and games raise their kids!

  12. Concerned Citizen on September 25th, 2020 4:55 pm

    Another video game nerd want to live out his video game fantasy in real life. No way would I buy my kids video games. These kids have zero social skills, their loners, and for Gods sake they need female companionship in their lives.

  13. Steve C on September 25th, 2020 4:46 pm

    See or hear something, say something. The caller potentially saved numerous lives.

  14. Larry Dye on September 25th, 2020 4:31 pm

    This young man needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So glad he was found before he took action.