Gang text message deemed hoax by authorities

By Brian Livingston

A text message received by thousands of people across the nation, including in Meridian, has been deemed as a hoax by authorities here and in places such as New Mexico and Deleware.

The message said three women would be shot and killed at the Bonita Lakes Wal-Mart as part of a gang initiation, authorities said.

Meridian Police Department officials said there is no credible information to make them believe the text message.

“We don’t know where this text message came from but we have no reason to believe anything of this sort will happen here or anywhere else,” said MPD Capt. James Sharpe. “Local Wal-Mart officials contacted us deeply concerned about the text message but so far we are treating this as just a hoax somebody has dreamed up.”

According to national news outlets, law enforcement authorities in the last 36 hours from Deleware to the West Coast have been dealing with this apparent hoax trying to calm down the populace while at the same time boosting police patrols in cities where the message has been prominent.

“We have people who provide us intelligence on the streets and they’ve not heard anything that would lead us to believe anything is going to happen,” Sharpe said.

A New Mexico TV station reported this morning a similar hoax spread through Memphis, Tennessee in 2005. Nothing reportedly happened there and authorities say the same will be true here and elswhere across the nation.

No specific gang was mentioned in the text.