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Sheriffs investigate threat that canceled Beast Coast show at Freedom Hill

Published  August 12, 2019 6:57pm EDT
News
FOX 2 Detroit

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - Hip-hop super group Beast Coast was forced to cancel their sold-out show at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill in Sterling Heights after threats of violence.

"(The threat was) 'Cancel the concert. There's going to be a mass shooting there,'" said Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham.

Roughly 7,000 people were set watch the New York City group made up of Flatbush Zombies, Pro Era and The Underachievers - at 7 p.m. Sunday.
 
"And there was another event in the picnic area that was going on in the daytime," said Wickersham.

But Wickersham says at about 10 a.m. Sunday a startling call came in to the Palace of Auburn Hills for the concert's promoter 313 Presents. Not long after, Wickersham says a second call - came to the front desk of the Sterling Heights Police Department.

The threat was the same: the show should be cancelled, there was going to be a mass shooting.
 
"We definitely know it was the same caller who called Sterling Heights," Wickersham said, adding that he called in more man-power. Police tried to determine if the show should go on.

"(We asked) can we identify this individual, is this threat credible or is it not credible," Wickersham said.

With little information - just a phone number - Wickersham says they planned to ramp up security with an additional 20 deputies and undercover cops.

But at 5 p.m. Wickersham says the promoters, venue and acts decided to call it off.
 
"In today's environment and things that have gone on the last couple of weeks with different mass shootings around the United States, I think they made the right call."

The venue is now issuing refunds to concert-goers as police work to find the person responsible.

"Was he giving some of us a heads up or was he trying to make the threats, investigators are following through that," Wickersham said.

The sheriff says the county's computer crime task force is working hard to find that caller who could face a domestic terrorism charge - a 20-year felony.