FBI charges man with allegedly cyberstalking ‘high level’ UT Austin employees
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Nevada man faces federal cyberstalking charges for allegedly sending a barrage of threatening messages and tormenting two unnamed "high level" University of Texas at Austin employees, causing one to move from her home in fear.
The FBI arrested Brian Solomon on Monday, and he faces criminal charges of interstate communications with threat to injure and cyberstalking. KXAN reached out to his attorney, a federal public defender, for comment.
Solomon allegedly admitted to investigators that he used at least four different Instagram accounts since June, sending "a few thousand direct messages" to the two university employees, both of whom appear to have ties to athletics, according to federal court records.
Over the past three months, Solomon allegedly threatened that he could "kill" one of the UT employees and "rape" the daughter of another "over and over and over again until I make her kill herself too," according to the disturbing details outlined in federal court records.
One employees told federal investigators that they felt the need to move into a gated location with a multi-camera surveillance system.
The criminal complaint also alleges Solomon threatened to "massacre" anyone who attended an event one of the employees attended and promised to show up at one of her "first 10 games."
"Makes me want to massacre people," one alleged message read.
UT Austin officials did not respond to a request for comment.
In July, Solomon is accused of messaging one of the victims — who was in Los Angeles for the ESPY Awards — to say he bought a ticket to an event where she was scheduled to speak. His ticket was revoked due to safety concerns and the woman, "concerned enough for her own safety," had to pay out-of-pocket for private security during her entire trip, according to the complaint.
Solomon — who claimed he and one of the victims "were to be married" and that he was "the second coming of Christ" — flew to Austin and was located about eight miles from where one of the victims lived, the documents state. According to the FBI, Solomon had "become angry" with the employee, referred to her as the "devil," and sent her requests to pay for his flight to Austin.
Attempts to block him from contacting them didn't work and only seemed to make him more angry, according to the complaint.
"Based on the public nature of Victim-1's employment and a publicly accessible schedule, in addition to SOLOMON's previous travel to Austin, Texas, and his incessant harassing and threatening communications," the criminal complaint states, "Victim-1 has experienced substantial emotional distress at the prospect that SOLOMON will harm her."
Read the federal criminal complaint Download
Solomon was previously arrested in Austin in July 2023 for burglary of a vehicle and criminal mischief. In February, he was arrested in Nevada for stalking in an unrelated case. As a result of his arrest and guilty plea, a protection order was entered against him, according to the FBI.
Seamus Hughes, a researcher with the University of Nebraska at Omaha's National Counterterrorism Center, found and sent this federal investigation to KXAN.
