Denver Gunman Makes Facebook Post During Robbery

Sites include Facebook.com . Published on September 21st, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

It’s not often that Facebook plays a real-time role in an armed robbery but for one RadioShack store in Denver, this is exactly what happened.

Police officers responded to a robbery call at the local RadioShack; inside an employee was being held by Taveuan Williams, the 19-year-old armed gunman. When the robber realized that the game might be up, he started to communicate on Facebook.

From the posts made it is clear that Williams essentially panicked. In one post he wrote, “Swear to God, I’m gonna die.” One friend who didn’t want to be identified told local reporters that the threat of either dying or going to jail is enough to send most robbers into a tailspin: “They know they’re either going to jail forever or that the police are going to shoot them.”

Williams Facebook posts included pictures of himself inside the store and various chats with friends that he had arranged via Facebook. Police forced the people outside that were using their cell phones to chat with Williams via Facebook to stop. After a few tense hours the standoff ended and Williams and his accomplice were taken into custody.

The whole affair being played out on the local news and on Facebook is a reminder of how intertwined social media is with the real world. It shows too that Facebook is a tool used by both the law abiding and the lawbreaker alike.