Man charged after online threats made to Country Thunder

A 30-year-old Fort Qu’Appelle man has been charged with uttering threats by RCMP after a social media post was reported to police.

RCMP said an anonymous complaint was made regarding a threat circulating on social media.

The post, which has been removed, made reference to the Las Vegas mass shooting that occurred last month and named the Country Thunder music festival.

The festival’s Kim Blevins said they were made aware of the threat through their own Facebook page.

“When you see something like this, it’s obviously concerning,” Blevins said.

She said that any time a post references a mass shooting, it’s taken very seriously.

Blevins said that they had tried to find the post but couldn’t locate it. When they reported the threat to police, someone else had already alerted the RCMP of the incident.

She said they have received negative comments about the festival in the past but nothing of this nature.

“I’ve been looking through our contact and messages that we’ve received since 2005 and I’ve never seen anything close to this.”

She said that they are in the process of finding out if the person had purchased tickets to the festival. Blevins said they have been in contact with their RCMP contacts to decide what options should be taken.

She said she’s thankful that their fans cared enough to let them know about the threat rather than let it pass.

“We’re all kind of in this together, the country music community is a very tight-knit community and our fans are very invested in this festival.”

She said discussions are ongoing with RCMP and festival security to determine what changes may be coming in regards to event safety.

Police said that Tyrell Eric McKay turned himself into the detachment.

McKay is facing two charges including uttering threats and breach of probation.

McKay remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in Fort Qu’Appelle provincial court on Monday.

The investigation is ongoing.