CTV News Montreal

Updated: Sun Oct. 03 2010 6:19:10 PM

ctvmontreal.ca

The Surete du Quebec's cyber-surveillance squad arrested a man in the north-end of Montreal on Saturday for allegedly sending out death threats on the social networking site Facebook.

David Abitbol, 28, was arrested at his parents' home at 3865 Gouin Blvd. East, just west of Pie IX Blvd. A police search of the residence led to the seizure of five firearms and several hundred rounds of ammunition.

The SQ alleges that Abitbol threatened people he knew via Facebook, largely former college classmates.

However, the suspect's father Joseph Abitbol says the whole thing is a horrible misunderstanding.

"Go after the terrorists, not me, we are honest people here," Joseph Abitbol told CTV Montreal's Aphrodite Salas. "Nothing is real, it's a game. A virtual game."

Joseph Abitbol says his son had a licence issued by the RCMP for the guns in his house and he regularly went to a shooting range to use them.

"He had all the authorization you need," he said.

The SQ got a tip Friday that someone using the handle "Dark Killer" was writing threatening messages on Facebook.

The site for someone using the handle "David Darkiller" turns up someone who has a picture of guns and ammunition as his profile photo. He has 65 friends, the large majority of whom live or at least go to school in Montreal. And two Facebook pages he likes are "Sniper" and "Guns!!!!" while his favourite quotation is "Death is the only solution."

Social networking expert Tara Hunt says the world of virtual online threats is not too different from real life, except for one glaring exception.

"I think the difference between what happened before social networking came along and what is happening now, is that it's more visible," Hunt said. "You can actually see it happen, you can trace it online."

The SQ's cyber surveillance team was quickly able to isolate the computer the threats came from. Abitbol was arraigned at the Montreal courthouse Saturday and charged with uttering death threats and negligent storage of firearms, while other charges may be coming.

With files from Canadian Press