Texas man sentenced for threatening to shoot people at McCook Walmart

MCCOOK, Neb. -- A Texas man was sentenced Thursday to more than two years in prison for threatening to shoot Walmart employees in McCook. 

The US Attorney announced that 26-year-old Rogelio Salas Jr. of Texas, was sentenced by the US District Judge to 33 months in prison for threatening to shoot employees and a specific victim who worked at the McCook Walmart.

After Salas' release from prison, he will begin a three-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

Court records said on Jan. 8, 2022, Salas announced that he was outside the Walmart with firearms and explosives; and said that he was going to enter the store with the weapons to kill the victim.

It was reported that Salas made multiple threatening calls to the store, and the store evacuated all employees and customers as a result of the threats.

An investigation showed that Salas was, in fact, in Texas at the time that the threatening calls were made to the Nebraska retailer.

Salas had started threatening and harassing the victim when they refused to play online video games with Salas anymore.

It was reported that the victim's reason for refusing to play with Salas was because he was using homosexual slurs during the video game sessions that offended the victim.

Once the victim stopped playing online games with Salas, he began to contact the victim on social media and determined the victim’s specific workplace was at the McCook area Walmart.

Salas pled guilty to transmitting threats in interstate commerce on July 21, 2022.

Because of his threats, the judge said he sentenced Salas to 33 months in federal prison, the longest sentence authorized by Salas, plea of guilty.