An Illinois woman inspired by pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory videos traveled to New York City on Wednesday with more than a dozen illegal knives and threatened to kill former Vice President Joe Biden, according to police and her own social media posts.
New York police officers arrested dancer Jessica Prim, 37, on Wednesday after she began to act strangely on a city pier. In a live video Prim posted on Facebook of her arrest, she ranted about saving children and claimed she had come to New York because of an internet conspiracy theory video about a “cabal” of pedophile Democrats.
“Have you guys heard about the kids?” a tearful Prim said as she was arrested. “OK, I’m not lying.”
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Shortly before her arrest, Prim posted on Facebook that Hillary Clinton and Biden “need to be taken out.”
“Hillary Clinton and her assistant, Joe Biden and Tony Podesta need to be taken out in the name of Babylon!” Prim wrote. “I can’t be set free without them gone. Wake me up!!!!!”
At another point during her arrest, Prim said she believed Donald Trump was talking to her directly during his coronavirus press conferences. Prim is facing more than a dozen counts of criminal possession of a weapon over the knives, as well as a marijuana possession charge, according to the New York Daily News.
Prim’s Facebook page is filled with references to QAnon, a conspiracy theory that holds that top Democrats like Biden and Clinton are cannibal-pedophiles scheming to undermine Donald Trump. Prim encouraged her Facebook fans to check out QAnon “clues,” anonymous posts from the anonymous person or group of people who direct QAnon believers. In a Facebook video posted just hours before her arrest, Prim ranted about a fictitious video—"Frazzled Rip”—that QAnon believers claim features Clinton and former Clinton aide Huma Abedin murdering a child.
Prim appears to have gone to the pier because she was convinced it was near the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Comfort, the hospital ship that was sent to New York City to help with the coronavirus pandemic. A faction of QAnon believers have become obsessed with the Comfort, convinced that it’s being used to rescue “mole children” abused by the “cabal.”
“I’m at the Comfort,” Prim said in the video.
In fact, Prim had mistaken the U.S.S. Intrepid, a former aircraft carrier that now serves as a museum, for the Comfort.
This isn’t the first time QAnon believers inspired by fringe internet content have turned to real-world crime. Two QAnon supporters have been charged with murders apparently inspired by the conspiracy theory, including the slaying of a top New York mafia boss. Another supporter pleaded guilty to committing a terrorist incident near the Hoover Dam, while other supporters have been involved in two separate child kidnapping plots.
This also isn’t the first time the hospital ships have drawn conspiracy theorists’ attention. In April, a train engineer in Los Angeles allegedly derailed a train near the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Mercy because he was convinced something suspicious was happening onboard.
