Texas Teenager Jailed For Violent Comment Made Over League Of Legends

“Kids will be kids,” they used to say. It was an idiom used by parents to partially excuse some of the adolescent, idiotic behavior or actions made by their young adults as they try to find who they truly are as a person. Kids playing games like League of Legends say things in the heat of passion that they might not have said in other circumstances. “Kids will be kids” may not be enough for one Texas teenager.

As reported by KVUE Austin, Justin Carter, a then-18 year old Austin man, was arrested for making a terrorist threat while in a Facebook conversation over the MOBA League of Legends.

"Jack Carter says his son Justin and a friend got into an argument with someone on Facebook about the game and the teenager wrote a comment he now regrets.“Someone had said something to the effect of ‘Oh you’re insane, you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head,’ to which he replied ‘Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk.,” said Carter."

While we don’t know the full story, the article stated that the police arrested him the month following the comment, meaning that Austin police likely looked heavily into the manner and acting accordingly as if it were a serious threat. The young man has been charged with making a terrorist threat and could face up to eight years in jail, according to Justin’s dad. There’s a petition to free him from jail over at Change.org.

Update: According to MSNBC, an anonymous donor posted the $500,000 bail required to free Justin Carter. It’s unclear what type of bail is required, or if the donor will receive their money back if Justin agrees to and appears in court.