Kansas Man Arrested for Allegedly Threatening to Murder Ben Shapiro

Aaron Stov, a 29-year-old from Kansas, was arrested in Florida on suspicion of posting a series of antisemitic threats to murder Jewish-American commentator Ben Shapiro. The threats included a countdown that appeared to target Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as the date for the alleged attack. Stov was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail in Florida.

Court documents indicate investigators found probable cause to charge Stov with 23 counts of written or electronic threats to kill or cause bodily harm. Prosecutors are seeking to enhance the charges due to the alleged antisemitic motive. The posts, reportedly made between July 31 and August 2 on an X account that has since been deleted, allegedly contained explicit references to Shapiro being Jewish and antisemitic remarks alongside the countdown.

According to U.S. media reports, Shapiro, who resides in Boca Raton, Florida, informed investigators that his security chief alerted him after intelligence personnel identified the posts. Shapiro described the threats as particularly serious due to the countdown, which suggested a planned attack on a specific date, Yom Kippur. The investigation, aided by information from X, Google, and Starlink, led authorities to Stov.

On August 4, Stov was visited by a U.S. Secret Service agent and a police officer as part of a separate investigation into threats against the President. During questioning, Stov reportedly admitted that three X accounts used to post the messages belonged to him. These accounts also allegedly contained threats against former President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and podcaster Joe Rogan.

Shapiro, 42, is a prominent conservative voice in the U.S., co-founder of The Daily Wire, and host of "The Ben Shapiro Show." His YouTube channel has approximately 7 million subscribers. His campus lectures have frequently been sites of protests and political confrontations, and he has stated he has been under constant security for about a decade. The threat gains added gravity amid rising political violence in the U.S., referencing the September 10, 2025, fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, during a speech at Utah Valley University. Shapiro had known Kirk for 13 years and spoke after his death about the increasing sense of threat surrounding political appearances on campuses.