Mass Shooting Threats Made On YouTube: COURT

MISSION VIEJO, CA — Sentencing was handed out Friday for a former student of Soka University who used YouTube as a platform for sharing his mass shooting threats last October. David Kenneth Smith, 40, of Los Angeles was convicted in April on one felony count of criminal threats. He will spend three years in state prison, the Orange County District Attorney's Office said.

Smith posted YouTube videos last year using firearms as props, "praising perpetrators of recent mass shootings," the Senior Deputy District Attorney Brett Brian said. He also discussed the "possibility of carrying out an attack."

On Oct. 31, 2017, Smith also sent emails to a Soka University staff member that threatened violence. In that email, he linked to the YouTube video, where Smith was seen laying in his bathtub, cradling a firearm.

In the video, Smith "talked about his conflicts with the Soka administration," and "voiced his aggression" with the university.

Smith was arrested in early November, and possessed nine loaded firearms at the time of his arrest, the OCDA's office said.

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