Exterior view of the Walmart on East Randol Mill Road in Arlington, located near AT&T Stadium | Image via Google Maps.
A bomb threat shut down a Walmart in Arlington over the weekend as part of a broader, linked wave of extremist threats targeting schools and public spaces across North Texas.
Officers with the Arlington Police Department responded to a bomb threat at a Walmart across from AT&T Stadium on January 17. The incident follows a documented string of school and public-space threats across the Dallas-Fort Worth area linked to an online “accelerationist” extremist network, as The Dallas Express has reported.
“An employee at the store reported that they’d received a phone call from an unknown individual who claimed there was a bomb,” Arlington Police spokesman Tim Ciesco told The Dallas Express.
So Arlington police responded to the Walmart on E. Randol Mill Road around 12:10 p.m. to investigate, per Ciesco. According to a press release, the Arlington Fire Department also responded.
“As a precaution, the store was evacuated,” Ciesco said. “First responders conducted a full sweep of the building and did not locate anything suspicious. The threat was determined to be not credible.”
Afterward, Arlington police allowed the store to re-open, according to Ciesco. He said no one was injured, and investigators are still determining who placed the call.
AT&T Stadium is scheduled to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and regional officials are already increasing security planning. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved funding for anti-drone and counter-terrorism operations tied to the event.
While Arlington police did not publicly attribute the call to a specific group, the threat matches the timing, targets, and delivery method of a coordinated series of hoax bomb and mass-violence threats across North Texas earlier this month.
Masked suspects online threatened to commit mass violence at 14 schools and the Galleria Dallas earlier this month, as The Dallas Express reported. The Fort Worth Police Department deemed the threats non-credible, but arrested alleged arsonist Evan Banda, 17, for reported ties to the “violent extremist hate organization.”
The Dallas Express confirmed the threats originated from the online Ukrainian violent accelerationist group MKY — short for “Maniac Murder Cult” — a cell within the broader 764 extremist network. The network promotes nihilistic violence, targets minors online, and seeks to incite real-world attacks through coordinated hoax threats and intimidation campaigns.
Frisco ISD closed campuses January 12 – then again later in the week – after repeated threats, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. The week prior, a “non-credible” bomb threat cleared North Dallas High School.
At the time of publication, investigators had not publicly named a suspect in the Arlington incident, but the threat closely mirrors a coordinated pattern already under investigation across North Texas.