Cincinnati man arrested for recording himself threatening to kill former co-workers after being fired from local Walmart

A Cincinnati man recently fired from a Walmart in nearby Evendale has been accused of threatening to kill his former co-workers, specifically calling out those who were white.

Kenneth Blackwell-Kirkendall, 28, was arrested earlier this month and subsequently charged with aggravated menacing, inducing panic, and ethnic intimidation. Three Walmart locations hired additional security officers as a direct result of his actions.

As WLWT reports, on March 2, Blackwell-Kirkendall live-streamed his nearly five-minute-long profanity-laced tirade on Facebook while walking down the street, repeatedly lifting his shirt to reveal a gun tucked into his waistband.

"I'm ready to go crazy," he said on Facebook Live. "Anybody I see today, boy, anybody I see, bro, I'm popping their [expletive]."
 

"I'm about to go to Walmart and kill all their [expletive]," Kirkendall continued. "Watch this. I'm going viral today y'all. Tried to tell you. I'm walking right in that [expletive] and going crazy. They want to play."

He concluded by declaring, "I'm gonna kill one of these white [expletive] today."

At his arraignment, Blackwell-Kirkendall's attorney Chris Collman argued that the "ethnic intimidation" charge was not warranted.

"The statute requires that the racial color of the individual being threatened be the reason for the intimidation," he argued, pointing out that, "quite frankly, the way the complaint reads, it alleges that the basis for the intimidation is employment status."

Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor David Wood, however, argued that Blackwell-Kirkendall's "threats to kill were not differentiated by their status of management or their status as Walmart employees or their status of anything other than white individuals."

It was not made clear why Blackwell-Kirkendall had been fired.

"The safety of our associates and customers is our top priority," Walmart said in a statement, per Local12. "We will continue to work closely with law enforcement through the course of our investigation."