Justin Roiland came under the crosshairs of one angry fan during his presentation at the 2017 Game Awards. Roiland, co-creator of "Rick and Morty," was revealing his the debut trailer for his Squanch Games VR effort "Smith & Smitherson Accounting+" on edge since he was apparently the target of a threatening tweet prior to the Awards.
The said tweet, which was shared on the website 4chan, read, "That's the final straw, I am attending this year's video game awards with 3 handguns, 2 smg's a shotgun and a dead man's switch attached to a bomb vest. When this meme f*ck takes the stage, I am going to open fire and take out as many of these (censored) as I can until the police take me down. Also, I am spray pointing '/pol/ told me to do it' on the back of my trenchcoat so I can take down those (censored) as well. Wish me luck."
This threat was spread fast and was even taken seriously enough for The Microsoft Theater to reach out to the authorities, particularly the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on Dec. 6, which was a day before the event. 4chan was also alarmed by the said tweet and had even handed over to the police the internet protocol (IP) address of the account responsible for the comment. Authorities then tracked it back to someone living in the United Kingdom.
The authorities are now trying to locate whoever posted the tweet despite him/her not actually doing anything at the event, simply for the trouble he caused, which may count as an attempted terror attack.
Meanwhile, it was unclear why it was Roiland who was targeted for the attack. This, however, did not prevent him from doing what he planned to on the stage, which is to present his virtual reality (VR) game for the PlayStation. Regardless, Roiland has received no further threats and is now safe, and his game "Smith & Smitherson Accounting+" is set to be released sometime next year.
