St. Paul, Minn. – A chilling TikTok post that dangled a $45,000 bounty for the assassination of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has landed a 29-year-old Minnesota man behind bars, federal authorities announced Thursday. Tyler Maxon Avalos, a St. Paul resident with a rap sheet spanning multiple states, faces charges of interstate transmission of a threat to injure another person—a felony that could net him up to five years in prison.
The saga unfolded on October 9 when a vigilant Detroit TikTok user spotted the incendiary upload from the account
@liminalvoidslip
and tipped off the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center. The post featured a mock wanted poster: Bondi’s face etched with a red sniper-scope dot on her forehead, blaring “WANTED: Pam Bondi / REWARD: 45,000 / DEAD OR ALIVE (PREFERABLY DEAD).” A sly caption followed: “cough cough when they don’t serve us then what?” The profile, laced with an anarchy symbol and links to extremist manifestos, screamed ideological fury.
FBI agents pounced with surgical precision. An emergency subpoena to TikTok unmasked a Samsung Galaxy device, a Comcast IP address, and a Google email tied to Avalos. Cross-referencing Minnesota probation records pinpointed his Hyacinth Avenue address. On October 16, agents swooped in, cuffing him without incident. Avalos’s priors paint a grim portrait: a 2018 Florida battery conviction involving a knife attack on a woman, plus Minnesota stints for assault and theft. “This wasn’t hyperbole; it was a direct incitement,” FBI Special Agent Caleb Jurchisin wrote in the affidavit, flagging potential domestic terrorism ties.
Bondi, Trump’s fiery Florida loyalist sworn in as AG earlier this year, has been a lightning rod for critics slamming her hardline stances on immigration and election integrity. The White House condemned the threat as “unhinged leftist violence,” with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt vowing zero tolerance. Avalos, released pretrial by Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko, now chafes under a gauntlet of restrictions: GPS ankle monitor, no booze or guns, mental health check-ins, a 10 p.m. curfew, and supervised internet only. He can’t flee Minnesota.
This arrest underscores a surge in digital death threats against Trump officials—echoing recent bounties on border agents by cartels. Cyber sleuths hailed the takedown as a win for vigilant online policing, but free speech advocates fretted over the line between rage and crime. As Avalos’s court date looms, one question lingers: In an era of viral venom, how many more bounties lurk in the algorithm?
