A man dressed as the villain Joker from Batman entered Blueberry Hill bar in St. Louis and started making threats of violence while streaming live on Facebook.
Jeremy Garnier, 51, was sentenced to 60 days in jail and also probation under a one-year suspended sentence for making threats at the bar. Garnier told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he already spent five and a half months in jail while waiting for trial in this case.
In his video, he said, “We’re not going to go to any movie theaters. We’re going to go totally unarmed because we don’t want to alert the authorities into thinking we might be on an actual rampage.” Garnier said this in reference to the mass shooter attack in 2012 during a screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado.
Garnier stated he had no intention of committing any acts of violence.
“I was talking like The Joker,” Garnier stated, “I was in character. Everybody knew that it was a joke and that I had no intentions of following through with a threat.”
Garnier pleaded guilty to the charges in order to avoid more time in jail. This allowed Garnier to receive a misdemeanor instead of the felony version he originally faced.
Garnier stated he spent over 20 years in prison for crimes including robbery, burglary, and stealing as well as admitting he was a drug addict.
Garnier stated that now he is sober and wants to use his platform to raise awareness of the opioid epidemic.
Garnier said, “Think before you act. Your actions have repercussions. No matter how trivial and joking I thought it was, people took it seriously.”
Garnier’s terms of probation include having no contact with the bar, no living in homes with or possessing guns or ammunition, refraining from wearing a costume or make-up in public, and he must only use social media as a platform for his artwork.
