A 50-year-old Florida man frustrated from rejections he received on Grindr has been arrested after allegedly threatening to attack the LGBTQ community in Tampa and then kill himself.
Ralph Perkins, 50, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting.
Perkins made the threats earlier this week after his offer for an unidentified person to move in with him was rejected, according to the arrest report.
Tampa police claim Perkins sent the following message from his phone: “I like to take a gun I like to wipe the whole gay community out in Tampa and then kill myself,” and “That’s going to be my ultimate present to Tampa, Florida, is the annihilator (sic) the gay community before I kill myself.”
“Perkins did not have any known immediate access to firearms and no weapons were confiscated during the arrest,” Eddy Durkin, a spokesperson for the Tampa police said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times, which first reported on the arrest.
Perkins told a witness that he was depressed and has been suffering from stomach cancer.
Perkins has previously been arrested for failing to properly register as a sex offender — stemming from a 2004 arrest in Alabama — and for giving false information to law enforcement.
Perkins appeared in court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday before 13th Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Thomas, according to court records.
Thomas found probable cause that Perkins threatened to commit a mass shooting.
He has been assigned a public defender and is currently being held without bail at the Hillsborough County jail.
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million -- or about $35 million -- to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of users in the United Kingdom who allege that the U.S.-based gay dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including some users' HIV statuses, with advertising companies.
The settlement ends a legal battle that began when the U.K. law firm Austen Hays filed a claim in the High Court of England and Wales in April 2024, accusing Grindr of violating U.K. privacy laws. The lawsuit alleged that Grindr improperly shared users' personal information mainly before April 3, 2018, and between May 25, 2018, and April 7, 2020.
Gay adult performer Alfonso Osnaya says he was "knocked out" outside Beaux, an LGBTQ bar in San Francisco's Castro District, after a group of men mocked his work in the adult industry.
Osnaya told Out that the September 17 confrontation began inside the bar. He said he walked away, but the men confronted him outside.
"I took the bait from some judgmental comments and I was alone," Osnaya said. "They were waiting for me outside. I got knocked out, and the next thing I knew, I had the people from Beaux helping me out while the paramedics and cops did their job. Everyone was very sweet, and thankfully, nothing serious happened."
Derek Chadwick, co-founder of the gay dating app Goose, has left the company, saying its direction no longer aligns with his original vision.
Launched in June, Goose marketed itself as a rival to Grindr, distinguishing itself from the dating and hookup app for gay and bisexual men by emphasizing genuine relationships and connections, according to Attitude.
Goose's official Google Play description says the app allows gay men to "discover guys through shared places, interests, friends, and moments happening around you."
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