Victor Casillas, 34, was arrested in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday for threatening a Las Vegas-style shooting
A Brooklyn, New York man has been arrested for threatening to carry out a Las Vegas-style shooting.
Victor Casillas, 34, was taken into custody Tuesday night in midtown Manhattan, and is set to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
According to the criminal complaint, Casillas started threatening mass murder against a Denver-based app company he was extorting for closing his account.
Casillas joined Ibotta, a mobile app that offers consumers cash rebates on products from milk to Uber rides, in 2014.
Like many apps trying to grow their customer base, the company offers cash rewards to users who refer their business to friends.
In the past two years, Casillas cashed in on these referrals more than a dozen times.
But Ibotta says they discovered that Casillas’ referrals were actually just duplicate accounts set up in his own name.
When they discovered he was gaming the system, they closed his duplicate accounts and offered him $40 to end the matter.
Stephen Paddock killed 58 and injured more 489 at the Las Vegas shooting earlier this month before committing suicide
But Casillas continued setting up fake accounts, and the company closed his accounts for good in September.
That’s when they say he grew angry and started sending threatening emails to staff. His first message was sent September 2 – and threatened to take out company officials unless they paid him a certain amount.
In two emails before the Las Vegas shooting, Casillas sent pictures of heavy duty weapons including a submachine gun equipped with a silencer and two MAC-11 submacine guns.
He also said that he had arrived in Colorado to attack the company, but authorities say there’s no indication he actually traveled to Denver.
Authorities say Casillas threatened a similar massacre when a Denver app company, Ibotta, closed his account
He allegedly sent a hit list to company officials, and put the word ‘decapitation’ next to one employee’s name on the list.
‘Please tell loved ones to start picking out a nice beautiful casket and plan a decent funeral,’ he threatened in one email.
His final email was sent on October 4, three days after the Las Vegas shooting.
In it, he invoked the shooting, writing: ‘GET READY FOR A LAS VEGAS REPEAT (Final Warning),” stating “I I STILL HAVE NOT RECIEVED MY GOD DAM FLTNDS…..A**HOLES. . . WELL GET READY 4 LAS VEGaspart2 ….MAYBE TODAY YOU WILL MEET YOU MAKER.’
Law enforcement were able to track Casillas back to New York City using his IP address GPS location.
If convicted, Casillas could spend up to 20 years in prison.