Mass Shooting Threat Was Hoax Over Philly Fantasy Football Spat: Feds

Crime & Safety

Mass Shooting Threat Was Hoax Over Philly Fantasy Football Spat: Feds A fantasy football league disagreement led a Philly area man to claim a fellow player was planning mass shootings, officials said.

PHILADELPHIA, PA — A spat over fantasy football led a Philadelphia man to call in fake bomb and threats and mass shooting threats with the goal of incriminating another player in his league, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced.

Matthew Gabriel, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of interstate and foreign communication of a threat to injure.

Federal officials said that law enforcement wasted hundreds of hours investigating the threats.

"Hoax threats aren't a joke or protected speech, they're a crime," U.S. Attorney Jaqueline C. Romero said in a statement. "My advice to keyboard warriors who'd like to avoid federal charges: always think of the potential consequences before you hit 'post' or 'send.'"

It's not clear exactly what led to the dispute between Gabriel and the other man in his league, who left the Philadelphia area in Aug. 2023 to go to Norway.

But by Aug. 3, Gabriel had cobbled together an anonymous "tip," which he sent to the Norwegian Police Security Service, also known as Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste (PST), officials said.

"On August 15th (the player in Gabriel's league) is headed around Oslo and has a shooting planned with multiple people on his side involved," Gabriel wrote in the tip, according to federal authorities. "They plan to take as many as they can at a concert and then head to a department store. I don't know any more people then that, I just can't have random people dying on my conscience. he plans to arrive there unarmed spend a couple days normal and then execute the attack. Please be ready. He is around a 5 foot 7 read head coming from America, on the 10th or 11th I believe. He should have weapons with him. Please be careful."

After five days of investigation both in Norway and in the United States turned up with nothing, Gabriel was interviewed by the FBI and he admitted he fabricated the tip, police said.

But just a few months later, on March 22, 2024, Gabriel sent a second "tip" regarding the fantasy football player, this time to the University of Iowa, according to authorities. He presented the tip as a screenshot from the league, which he claimed had been forwarded to him from Nebraska.

"Hello University of Iowa a man named (the player) told me he was gonna blow up the school," the message read, according to officials.

That message was written in jest by another member of the league who was joking about Gabriel's threat the previous fall, and Gabriel knew that, authorities said. Still, he presented the message to the University of Iowa as a true threat.

Gabriel faces up to five years in prison, three years probation, and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is forthcoming.