Man Charged Over YouTube Poisoning Videos

A Manhattan resident is facing prison time for posting videos on YouTube in which he claimed to have poisoned baby food, federal prosecutors announced yesterday.

Anton Dunn, 42, allegedly described how he and his cohorts killed four children by slipping cyanide into millions of Gerber baby food bottles. There is no evidence that any bottles were actually contaminated, prosecutors said, but they are nevertheless charging him for the threats.

Operating under the alias "Trashman" and wearing a ski mask, Mr. Dunn claimed in his videos that his group's goal was to kill black babies, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District. The postings started to appear in April.

Gerber Products Company released a statement describing the videos as "a malicious hoax." The Food and Drug Administration has not received reports that any poisoning occurred, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Mr. Dunn is facing up to 10 years in prison on charges of sending threats in interstate commerce and falsely claiming to have tampered with a consumer product.

A spokesman for YouTube said the company has a "zero tolerance policy" for threats. A representative for the Food and Drug Administration did not respond to request for comment.