Minnesota man arrested for threatening Pam Bondi in alleged “murder-for-hire” TikTok post

Washington — A Minnesota man was arrested earlier this month and charged with threatening Attorney General Pam Bondi in a TikTok post that appeared to place a $45,000 bounty on the nation’s top law enforcement official.

The post targeting Bondi was reported to the FBI on Oct. 9 by a TikTok user in Detroit and features a photo of Bondi with a “sniper-scope red dot” on her forehead, as well as the text “WANTED: Pam Bondi. REWARD: 45,000. DEAD OR ALIVE (PREFERABLY DEAD), according to an FBI affidavit submitted with the federal court in Minnesota.

The post includes a caption that reads “*cough cough* when they don’t serve us then what?” according to court filings. 

The FBI traced the account to Tyler Maxon Avalos, a 30-year-old living in St. Paul, Minnesota, it said in the affidavit. The bureau alleges that the account includes ties to anarchism, including a display name that features a symbol of anarchy and a pinned link to an “Anarchist FAQ” book.

Avalos has a criminal history that includes a 2022 felony stalking conviction and 2016 misdemeanor domestic assault conviction in Minnesota, and 2016 felony third-degree domestic battery conviction in Florida, according to court papers.

Avalos made an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Minneapolis earlier this month and was released on a personal recognizance bond last week.

The case was first reported by Seamus Hughes of the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.