Newberry Man Arrested on Child Porn Charges, Allegedly Threatened Mass Shooting

NEWBERRY ‒ A 29-year-old Newberry man, Simon David Flores, has been arrested on child pornography charges following an investigation that began after law enforcement received a tip about disturbing online messages.

Flores allegedly expressed intentions to commit a mass shooting in addition to engaging in sexually explicit communications with minors.

A CyberTip was received on Oct. 2, 2024, 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 Simon David 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 Sept. 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 Sept. 25, Flores reportedly sent a message to a third account that said, “I swear I never wanted to kill or pull a Columbine more than thsn [sic] now big time.”

On Sept. 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 Nov. 26.  At that time 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 available 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.

Bail was set at $100,000 by Judge Meshon Rawls.

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