According to police, Charles Smith, 27, entered the Walmart at 1955 S. Stapley Dr. on Dec. 19 intending to film pranks for social media platforms.

Instead, police said Smith grabbed a can of Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug and Flea Killer from a shelf without paying for it and then sprayed the pesticide on various vegetables, fruit and rotisserie chickens that were available for purchase.

Smith recorded his face, the pesticide can and the act of him spraying its contents. He later posted the recording online.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    It’s been publicallly stated neither him nor his parents were customers of that specific insurance company, so the manifesto is likely fake.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        So… do you think he was a customer, and they just haven’t found out yet?

        Like you said, it shouldn’t be hard to find out. Therefore, he almost certainly wasn’t a customer. They’d know.

          • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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            8 hours ago

            United already has a serious public image problem with their 30%-35% claim denial rate.

            How much worse would it be if they said, “yeah, Luigi’s back problems could have been easily fixed by surgery, but we decided to deny that claim and put him on painkillers for the rest of his life.” They’d be admitting that one of their many fark-ups got their CEO killed. And that’s not going to help their case if this ever goes to trial.

            • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
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              6 hours ago

              I am not an american so I wouldn’t know, but surely your police force wouldn’t lie in the interest of a company, would it?

              Or like, there would be massive legal backlash if the company disclosed false info to the police, no?

              What is going on over the great puddle?

              • rumba@lemmy.zip
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                6 hours ago

                police force wouldn’t lie

                Absolutely corruptible. That lie wouldn’t even be expensive. Company puts in a call to execs running the police, they say how they want it to go down, make promises for money/power/favor, trickles down through the ranks.

                massive legal backlash if the company disclosed false info

                The feds didn’t even pay the reward and there was no backlash. We don’t get together well and protest over things that don’t affect us individually. Even the left is shit at it. We expect them to lie. If someone produces proof he was with them, they’ll just plain plausible deniability or individual incompetence.

                Corporations own our political landscape on both sides. The judges, the police, everyone is running with a level of autonomy, wiggle room as you will, but when they need a narrative fed, it’s easy. Only 60% of us even believe the truth, feeding a few lies is simple.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            10 hours ago

            That’s just how cops talk. Police are trained to speak as vaguely as possible in order to not give the defense any ammunition. If they say “he was not a customer” then the defense can use that in the trial, and why would they want to help the defense?

            Now answer my question. Do you think he was a customer, and they just haven’t found out yet?

            • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              How on the bloody earth would assassinating his character help his defense? Maybe if they were lying, that could help I guess?

              He is either ought to be, or he is a set up! It is very suspicious that after a week of headless panicking they found the suspect with the murder weapon and an apparently false paper explaining that he did it

              • nomy@lemmy.zip
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                5 hours ago

                Dude you’re thinking way too deeply into, it really is as simple as “that’s just how cops and lawyers talk, nobody is going to give away anything.”

                On top of that we have pretty serious restrictions called HIPAA on releasing private healthcare information and no insurance provider in the world is just going to go ahead and confirm plans details or lack of one if they don’t have to.

        • Hello Hotel@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          They are not giving a definitive answer and merly giving their (less legally binding) professional opinion. Its like they dont want to know or publish an absolute.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      The manifesto they found on him was completely innocuous. What people are talking about that you consider might be fake is his online post history of the years on several platforms. no way they backfilled several services for that.