CLAYTON, Mo. — Eastern Missouri prosecutors have refiled a felony terrorist threat charge against a man accused of livestreaming threats to bomb and kill people while he was dressed up as the Batman villain known as The Joker.
St. Louis County prosecutors refiled the charge on Friday against Jeremy Garnier, 50, of University City, a day after a judge dismissed the case because prosecutors could not produce a key witness for the grand jury, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Garnier was arrested in March 2020 in a University City restaurant in the midst of his livestream. In it, prosecutors say, he’s dressed as The Joker and orders a soda in the restaurant, saying: “I can’t be inebriated when I’m planning on, you know, killing a bunch of people.”
Garnier's costume and alleged threats were reminiscent of a 2012 shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in which 12 people were killed and dozens injured during the showing of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Shooter James Holmes, who was dressed as The Joker during the shooting, received multiple life sentences after a jury couldn’t agree unanimously on death.
