Man allegedly threatened shooting at Vancouver Mall

A 20-year-old man is in custody after allegedly threatening via Twitter on Thursday that he was going to “shoot up” Vancouver Mall, court records say.

Matthew J. Noble of Vancouver appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of making threats to bomb or injure property. His bail was set at $50,000, and he will be arraigned June 14.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives contacted the Vancouver Police Department about 11:40 a.m. regarding the threat. The message had been sent about 8:30 a.m. and read “gonna shoot up the Vancouver Mall today,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.

In order to determine the correct location of the threat, ATF traced the origin of the tweet through the internet protocol, or IP, address, which came back to a device associated with Noble, the affidavit says. ATF also provided an address for Noble in the 700 block of Northwest 86th Street.

Police responded to the address and spoke with Noble’s mother, who said he lives in an apartment near the mall. When contacted, Noble admitted to sending the tweet but said he didn’t intend to follow through on the threat. He told police he doesn’t own or have access to a firearm, and a search of his apartment didn’t yield any firearms, according to court records.

“Noble said he had been listening to rap music that contained lyrics about shooting up a mall and had been listening to a podcast in which the speaker was talking about the psychology of mass shooters like the Columbine shooters,” the affidavit reads. “Noble said he posted the remark as ‘attention seeking … egotistical’ behavior and thought it would make him look ‘edgy’ on the internet.”