Security guard accused of threatening to kill Trump, ‘blow up’ Broward on Facebook Live
A South Florida security guard is behind bars after the Secret Service says he threatened to kill President Donald Trump while wearing a towel “wrapped like a turban” on Facebook Live.
Chauncy Lump, 26, of Oakland Park was arrested Saturday after a Facebook employee notified the Broward County Sheriff’s Office about the video, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court.
The video was created around 10 p.m. Friday, only hours after Trump made a televised statement about killing Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike. Trump ordered the strike while vacationing at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach.
The president later reiterated his words to a crowd at Kendall’s Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesus.
“Qassem Soleimani has been killed and his bloody rampage is now forever gone,” Trump said at the church. “He was plotting attacks against Americans, but now we’ve ensured his atrocities have been stopped for good. He was planning a major attack and we got him.”
Hours later, Lump went live on Facebook for 7 minutes and 10 seconds, according to the complaint. In his video, he made several “explicit threats to kill and/or inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States,” for killing his “leader,” wrote Special Agent Lucas White in the complaint.
He also threatened to “blow up” Broward County if he didn’t find the president, according to court documents.
In the Facebook Live video, Lump had “white cream on his face, a towel on his head, wrapped like a turban, and what appeared to be a shower curtain over his body,” White wrote in the complaint. “In the background of the video, the viewer can hear music playing that appears to originate from the Middle East.”
He was also holding what appeared to be a “loaded AK-47,” the complaint states.
Deputies say they used public databases to identify Lump, whose name on Facebook was listed as “BlackMan Vs America.” Deputies and Secret Service agents then arrived to his apartment around 2 a.m. Saturday. It’s unclear if that account was suspended. A private personal account appears to remain on Facebook.
Lump admitted to producing the video during an interview with law enforcement and said it was in response to the United States’ killing of Soleimani, according to the complaint.
He then told police the threats were a joke and that “I shouldn’t have did it in the first place,” the complaint states.
He never said it was a joke in the video, White wrote.
At the time of the interview, Lump possessed a loaded, Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a car and $800, the complaint states. He has a Florida concealed weapon or firearm license and is a licensed security guard employed by Sunstates Security, a security guard service that has a regional office in Pompano Beach, court records show.
He’s been employed with the company for eight months, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Sunstates Security’s website says it employs “world-class security professionals” for a range of services throughout the United States and is built upon “20 years of engagement within some of the most elite law enforcement agencies in the world including Scotland Yard and the elite Royalty Protection Unit, guarding the Queen’s private estate and her family.”
“Mr. Lump is a former employee of Sunstates Security,” the company said in a brief statement late Thursday. “At the time of his employment, he passed a comprehensive background screen indicating no criminal history and was properly licensed with the State of Florida.”
Sunstates Security had no further comment.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Lance Garrett is representing Lump on the state charge relating to the false bomb threat.
“I intend on thoroughly investigating the allegations and studying all possible defenses,” he said. “Mr. Lump is an upstanding young man who has, so far as I know, no prior criminal record. He is presumed innocent of these charges.”
As of Thursday, no attorney was listed for the federal charge of threatening the president.
According to state records, Lump does not have a serious criminal history.
Lump is being held at Broward’s Joseph V. Conte Facility and is being held for the U.S. Marshals Office, arrest records show.
He is facing charges relating to making a false bomb threat and for threatening the president.
This report will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
