A disgruntled Arkansas man was arrested on Friday for threatening to shoot up a Walmart if America goes into a hantavirus lockdown.
The arrest of Aaron Keith Bynum, 20, came after the FBI’s National Threats Operations Center received an electronic tip about his statements from another online gamer.
The tip said that an online gamer since identified as Bynum “had threatened a mass shooting at his local Walmart if the country were locked down again due to the Hantavirus,” according to a press release from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
The tipster handed over the gamer’s username and an in-game recording of his threat, providing the authorities with what they needed to subpoena the gaming company for more information about the gamer’s profile, including his name.
20 Year Old Arrested for Threatening Walmart Shooting Over Hantavirus Lockdown Fears.
Aaron Keith Bynum made the threat while gaming online; another player recorded it and alerted the FBI same day. He’s now in custody. pic.twitter.com/YO1wWZuFWN
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) May 18, 2026
The FBI subsequently passed their intel on to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, which in turn obtained a search warrant for Bynum’s address and a probable cause affidavit for his arrest.
During Bynum’s arrest, the authorities seized his computer and computer accessories. He was booked into the Marion County Detention Center with a bond of $2,500.00 on one count of Terroristic Threatening 1st Degree, a Class “D” Felony, and one count of Harassing Communications, a Class “A” Misdemeanor.
His threat and arrest comes amid a recent outbreak of Hantavirus aboard a cruise ship that was traveling in the South Atlantic Ocean. Passengers of the ship have since returned home, prompting fear from the public.
“Hantavirus can cause severe respiratory illness with a fatality rate of around 40%, and it can take up to eight weeks after exposure to show symptoms,” according to Today.
The good news, however, is that experts don’t believe this outbreak will lead to a COVID-like scenario, including lockdowns:
JUST IN: The World Health Organization is trying to ease global concerns about the recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, drawing comparisons to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove clarifies that the newly identified hantavirus is vastly… pic.twitter.com/UdAaf2q8zt
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 7, 2026
“This is not coronavirus. This is a very different virus, we know this virus,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization said, according to a clip shared on X by Fox News. “Hantaviruses have been around for quite a while.”
“This is not the start of a COVID pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship, there’s a confined area, we have five confirmed cases so far,” she added.
This hasn’t stopped fear from propagating, and for what appears to be obvious reasons.
“COVID PTSD is real,” Infectious Disease Society of America President-elect Dr. Wendy Armstrong explained to Today.
Indeed, many Americans, including evidently Bynum, remain traumatized by the draconian lockdown policies that were pursued during COVID in 2020 and 2021.
But COVID is simply not hantavirus.
“It’s not the same as COVID, where you can walk into a room and have relatively minimal exposure and get infected,” Armstrong argued.
“Public health officials are monitoring this situation closely, but there is no indication of a risk that would warrant lockdown measures,” Dr. Mara Jana Broadhurst of the University of Nebraska Medical Center added.
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