Henry Poston says he was cruising the Blackstone River Bikeway in Lincoln on his longboard, livestreaming as he usually does, when a man who introduced himself as Joshua allegedly threatened to kill him and dump his body in the river. Poston says he escaped by riding off at speeds he estimates reached 30 miles per hour, then called police once he felt safe.
Poston is known online for his distinctive streaming style and upbeat social media presence, according to WJAR, and regularly films his longboard excursions for followers. He said he was traveling through Rhode Island toward Boston in late September when he decided to check out the Blackstone River Bikeway. “I wanted to go check out some of these north paths while it's still warm,” Poston said, per the station's report.
That is when, Poston says, he crossed paths with a man who identified himself as Joshua. The two talked for a while, and at one point Joshua showed Poston a spot along the path near the canal. According to the same account, the mood shifted abruptly from there, with Joshua allegedly bringing up the idea of putting Poston at the bottom of the river.
Streamer Says He Didn't Grasp the Danger Right Away
Poston said he did not immediately register how serious the situation had become. “It was very chilling and I'm honestly just blessed to still be here, honestly,” he said. He said Joshua told him to shut off the livestream so he could kill him: “He just told me to turn the stream off so he can kill me,” Poston recalled, per the same account.
Poston said he also believed, based on his own perception of the encounter, that the man had a knife. He ran from Joshua and says his longboard topped out at 30 miles per hour as he fled. Once he reached a safe location, he called police, and he said he believes the man could harm someone else if authorities don't look into the incident.
Case Bounced Between Two Departments
Cumberland police confirmed the incident was reported to their department but said it happened in Lincoln, so they referred it to the Lincoln Police Department. As of the station's report, WJAR said it had not received confirmation that Lincoln police were actively investigating the matter.
One person who says he knows the man described in Poston's account offered a very different impression of him. Lukas Williams told the station he has spent time with Joshua around campfires and called him “a person of good characteristics.”
A Path With a History of Safety Discussions
The Blackstone River Bikeway stretches for 11.6 uninterrupted miles between Lincoln and Woonsocket, according to the Valley Breeze, and sits within a corridor involving state and federal agencies, including Rhode Island's Department of Environmental Management and Department of Transportation. Officials have previously fielded questions about safety along the route: the Valley Breeze reported that DEM's law enforcement division logged 56 calls about various incidents on the bikeway from January through September 2023, though fewer than five of those involved someone feeling uncomfortable or having a hostile interaction with another person.
Lincoln police told the outlet they had received just 10 calls about incidents on the bikeway during the 10 months before that 2023 report, and said officers perform regular checks on the path even without being summoned. DEM, for its part, said it has no plans to install cameras along the bike paths, citing the prohibitive cost of installing, maintaining and monitoring that kind of surveillance. Lincoln Police Capt. Kyle Wingate said at the time that the path does not generate a high volume of citizen calls and should be enjoyed.
Poston's account of the confrontation has also circulated on social media, where he described the scare in blunt terms. On Snapchat, under the handle @bellagiohenrold, he wrote, “I may have escaped a serial killer,” and added, “He tried to kill me on livestream.” Those posts remain Poston's own characterization of the encounter and have not been independently verified.
