A teenager who livestreamed himself terrorizing outdoor diners in Manhattan by pretending to be a suicide bomber faces five years in jail.
Malik Sanchez, 19, entered a guilty plea at Manhattan federal court to conveying false and misleading information and hoaxes on Friday, over the February incident outside a Flatiron restaurant.
He shouted 'Allahu Akbar! during the frightening incident, which saw two women flee back into the restaurant as Sanchez warned he was two minutes off blowing them up.
He will be sentenced next February.
The drama began when the online pest posted a video to his YouTube channel on February 13th that showed him loudly stating that a bomb was about to go off near a table where two women were sitting eating a meal.
Malik Sanchez, 19, has pleaded guilty to terrorizing outdoor diners at a Manhattan eatery earlier this year
A livestreamed video showed him approaching an outdoor seating area in front of the restaurant saying 'Let's enhance their meal'
'Let's enhance their meal,' he suggested as he positioned himself close to diner's table.
Prosecutors said Sanchez loudly said: 'Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. 'Bomb detonation in two, in two minutes. I take you with me and I kill all you,' he yelled.
The women quickly jumped up from their table and fled with several other diners sitting nearby.
'Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Bomb detonation in two, in two minutes. I take you with me and I kill all you. I kill all you right now. And I kill all you for Allah. F***, f*** that s***. I'm gonna Allah. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna f*****g do it for Allah. I'm gonna do it, for, Allah, Allah, Allahu Akbar, Come on. I do it, bomb now, bomb now,' he said.
All-the-while, Sanchez could be heard laughing having been egged on by viewers to his live-streamed video - some of whom even paid him cash tips.
He then loudly stated that a bomb was about to go off near a table where two women sat
The two women appear startled, gather their belongings and fled inside
'Yo, all of them scattered,' he said. 'Holy s*** boys. That was f***ing five stars. That was five stars.'
At least one person called 911. By the time police had responded to the scene, Sanchez was nowhere to be found, but he had left video incident of his sick joke online.
That clip has since been removed from his official channel, although it remains on other news reports about the incident.
'As alleged, Malik Sanchez perpetrated a hoax bomb threat at a Manhattan restaurant that frightened innocent victims, sowed chaos, and diverted precious law enforcement resources,' Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said during a court hearing in May.
Sanchez has made a number of disturbing videos all of which are posted to his YouTube channel.
The women didn't spend any time waiting around to see what would happen and ran inside
On another one from earlier this year he could be seen yelling at two women walking down the street staying he had 'incel rage'. He was also filmed using anti-Semitic language, and shouting the n-word at two young black women out walking close to Washington Square Park.
He also stated he was a supporter of Elliot Rodger, a man who is credited with starting the incel movement. It stands for 'involuntary celibate,' and is comprised of men who consider themselves too unattractive to find a partner. Rodger murdered six women including two from a sorority house in California in 2014.
Sanchez stated Rodger's victims 'deserved to be run over and hit by a truck. They deserved to be slaughtered.'
Sanchez self-identifies as an 'involuntary celibate' or 'incel,' a mostly online group of individuals, primarily men, who believe society unjustly denies them sexual or romantic attention, prosecutors say.
The women got up and ran away from from the table where they were sitting
Four other individuals in the seating area nearby also grabbed their things and ran away
The women ran inside the restaurant to escapeSanchez's harassment
Incels have been responsible for at least five deadly attacks in the United States and Canada since 2014, resulting in 28 deaths, the prosecutions' complaint noted
Many of his videos, which often last for several hours at time, see him approaching random strangers in the street, often young women, and insulting them to their face.
Sanchez will often follow his subjects for several blocks at a time while continuing to stalk his subjects, emboldened by followers on YouTube who donate money for him to carry out further acts of irritation.
He had been arrested in the past for scaling the Queensboro Bridge and pepper spraying at least five people during other livestreamed stunts.
Sanchez pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for scaling the bridge which was he livestreamed last year.
Federal Defender Clay Kaminsky said Sanchez was 'an attention-seeking 19-year-old' in need of help.
Sanchez pleaded guilty Friday to carrying out a hoax bomb threat on Valentine's Day weekend - he will be sentenced in February
At a court hearing in May, Judge Colleen McMahon released him to home confinement three weeks after his arrest, saying she had watched the video.
'The first thing I thought was, this is a kid who needs to be seeing a psychiatrist, this is somebody who needs mental health counseling,' McMahon said.
'I've seen the crime. I've seen it, because he videotaped it, and he broadcast it on YouTube and it's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. It's juvenile, it's puerile, it's deeply troubling, but it's bailable,' she added.
'Anybody who thinks what I saw in the video was funny is definitely in need of mental health care, definitely.'
The charge he pleaded guilty to can result in a prison sentence of up to five years.
A lawyer at his hearing in May said it was more likely any prison sentence would be measured in months rather than years.
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