Staff report

NEWBERRY, Fla. – Simon David Flores, 29, was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges after law enforcement received a tip that he had sent messages about wanting to “do a mass shooting.”

A CyberTip was received on October 2 about a Meta Platforms account expressing the intent to conduct a mass shooting; in response to an emergency request for information about the account, Meta Platforms identified Flores as the person who created the Instagram account that sent the message.

According to information provided to law enforcement by Meta Platforms, Flores sent a message to another account on Instagram on September 18 that said, “I hate this sh**. I’ve been feeling so dark and depressed lately. I want to do a mass shooting.”

The same day, Flores reportedly exchanged sexually explicit messages on Instagram with another account, talking about wanting to find a “young” person to “be a little submissive pet.”

On September 25, Flores reportedly sent a message to a third account that said, “I SWEAR I NEVER WANTED TO KILL OR PULL A COLUMBINE MORE THSN [sic] NOW BIG TIME.”

On September 26, in a sexually explicit exchange with a fourth account, Flores reportedly sent a picture of his genitals, and when the other account said he was 15 years old and asked if that was a problem, Flores responded, “Not if it isn’t for you… F*** society and its rules… I’ll get more guns.” Flores reportedly asked the other account to send pictures when his parents left.

A federal search warrant was executed at Flores’s home on November 26, and Flores declined to answer questions without an attorney present. However, when he was told about the search warrant, he reportedly asked if this was because he “said something while [he] was pissed.” When shown the nude picture of his genitals and told that law enforcement believed he had sent the picture to other people, he reportedly said, “Yeah.”

There is no information in the arrest warrant about whether federal charges are pending.

Flores has been charged with using a computer to seduce a minor and sending a sexually explicit image to a minor. Flores has no local criminal history; Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $100,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.