A white rapper from Arkansas has been arrested after police found terroristic threats in his music that were believable enough to cause concern.
The 20-year-old created tracks describing a desire to shoot up schools, blow up churches “associated with a specific race,” and murder and sexually assault children. He also claimed to want to assassinate President Joe Biden.
Reese Alexander Sullivan was taken into custody after officers from the Bentonville Police Department arrested him on Thursday, Nov. 2, charging him with terroristic threatening in the first degree.
According to a redacted Probable Cause Affidavit, seen by Atlanta Black Star, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) received a tip from an anonymous individual regarding statements made by the artist on Monday, Aug. 21.
The tipster gave authorities links to Sullivan’s ten videos, which contained the violent threats. His rap name was amongst the items redacted in the paperwork.
“Nine videos were analyzed,” the document stated. “Each of the video’s audio was in the form of rap music. Statements and threats within the videos included racial statements about specific groups of people and killing them, bombing churches associated with a specific race, killing kids, raping children, bringing his gun to school and killing people of a specific ethnic group, shooting up his school because he was bullied, details of a plan to committing a school shooting, killing his grandmother, bombing a specific public event, killing the president and bombing the senate.”
The FBI obtained a warrant on Halloween to search Sullivan’s apartment but found no weapons or explosives on the premises. The young man was not present during the search but at his job. When he finally was reached by authorities, he told them that the rap songs were manifestations of a “character or persona” he created when he was 17 years old.
He also said that “rap songs are meant to be funny” and that he doesn’t believe what he said in the songs, especially about hating certain people, raping children, shooting up his school, or harming any elected officials. He also confessed that he did not have any weapons or explosives in his possession.
Despite his songs indicating that he was bullied, police state that they did not discover a history of abuse or trauma in his life.
Sullivan was granted a $50,000 bond, according to the affidavit, and released on Nov. 4. Furthermore, he was instructed to refrain from using social media for writing or uploading audio and instructed to abstain from all internet use.
Online records state the rapper’s next court date is set for Dec. 11. He will be accompanied by public defender Jay Scott Saxton as he stands before the judge in the Benton County Circuit Court.
