Terrorism

NBC News reports: A mass shooting may have been prevented when a co-worker reported that a disgruntled employee had threatened to shoot other workers and customers at a California hotel, police said Wednesday. The man, who had several high-powered weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at his Los Angeles-area home, was arrested Tuesday, police said. Rodolfo Montoya, 37, who …

The Washington Post reports: When President Trump targeted mental illness as the cause of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that killed 31 people, federal health officials made sure no government experts might contradict him. A Health and Human Services directive on Aug. 5 warned communication staffers not to post anything on social media related to mental health, …

CNN reports: When authorities arrived Friday to arrest a 15-year-old in Florida after threats to commit a school shooting showed up on a video game platform, he told them he was joking, they said. “I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill 7 people at a minimum,” the boy wrote using a fake name. The …

The Atlantic reports: President Trump called National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre on Tuesday to tell him that universal background checks for gun purchases are off the table. The decision to oppose an initiative that has strong support in public polling signals an apparent backtracking by the president from initial comments he made following two mass shootings earlier this …

The Miami News Times reports: Washington state resident Eric Lin was not shy about his love for Adolf Hitler. According to a criminal complaint filed Friday, Lin enjoyed referencing the Third Reich in writing: He apparently sent a litany of Hitler-referencing death threats to a Hispanic woman in Miami and got himself arrested last week after he planned to wire …

The Associated Press reports: A truck driver has been arrested after saying he would commit a mass shooting at a church in Memphis, Tennessee, authorities say in newly filed court records. Thomas Matthew McVicker was apprehended in Indianapolis before the plan could be carried out, according to court papers filed Monday. It’s the most recent case in a string of …

The Washington Post reports: When federal agents arrived at Farhan Sheikh’s Chicago residence last week with a search warrant in hand, the 19-year-old suspected they were there because of a “joke” he had posted on a popular meme sharing platform, according to a complaint unsealed Monday. The allegedly humorous post? A threat to “slaughter and murder any doctor, patient, or …

The El Paso Times reports: The man charged in the El Paso Walmart mass shooting is on suicide watch, authorities say. Patrick Crusius, charged with killing 22 and injuring 25 on Aug. 3 was placed under close guard Monday on the recommendation of medical staff at the county jail, according to an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office official. Crusius, a …

Click Orlando reports: A Florida man who claims to be fascinated with mass shootings sent multiple text messages saying that he’d like to shoot into a large crowd and kill 100 people, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said they received information about text messages 25-year-old Tristan Scott Wix, of Daytona Beach, sent to someone. In the messages, …

ABC News reports: An Ohio man has been arrested for making threats toward a local Jewish community center in New Middletown. James Reardon Jr., 20, has been charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing and is being held in the Mahoning County Jail on $250,000 bond with a court hearing planned for Monday morning. On Friday, the FBI Violent Crimes …

The New York Post reports: The person of interest who sparked an evacuation in Lower Manhattan in the rice cooker subway scare has been apprehended, cops said Saturday. The arrest unfolded around 1 a.m. in the Bronx, where police also took a shopping cart into evidence, cell phone video shows. The Friday morning incident sent the morning rush into a …

Chicken and rice. No, really. The New York Post reports: The suspect wanted for Friday’s rice cooker bomb scare is a 26-year-old West Virginia native who is facing charges in his home state for allegedly sending bestiality videos involving a chicken to a minor, law enforcement sources told The Post. Cops believe Larry Griffin II, of Bruno, is the same …

The Associated Press reports: Two of four young men arrested for plotting to attack an upstate New York Muslim community with homemade explosives were sentenced Friday to four to 12 years in prison. Brian Colaneri, 20, and Andrew Crysel, 19, pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy in June. They and two others from the Rochester area were accused of planning to …

Roll Call reports: The House Judiciary Committee will consider three gun control bills when it convenes September 4, an early return from a summer break that could lob political pressure onto Senate Republicans to respond to recent mass shootings. The committee announced Friday it will mark up a bill to outlaw large capacity magazines along with a bill that would …

The Huffington Post reports: House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Friday introduced a bill that would criminalize domestic terrorism attacks. The bill would create a federal domestic terrorism crime and could be applied to attacks like mass shootings in El Paso, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Charleston, South Carolina, Schiff said in a statement. “Even though Americans today are …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Congressional Republicans recently circulated talking points on gun violence that falsely described the El Paso massacre and other mass shootings as “violence from the left.” A document obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and sent by House Republicans provides a framework for how to respond to anticipated questions like, “Why won’t you pass legislation to …

Gothamist reports: On Friday morning, a lower Manhattan subway hub was evacuated, eight subway lines were diverted during rush hour, and a few blocks in Chelsea were frozen after three suspicious packages—which turned out to be harmless rice cookers—were found. Now police are looking for a person who was “observed in the area of the Fulton Street Subway Station with …

The Associated Press release: Three abandoned devices that looked like pressure cookers prompted an evacuation of a major New York City subway station and closed off an intersection in another part of town Friday morning before police determined the objects were not explosives. Police were looking to talk to a man seen on surveillance video taking two of the rice …

Axios reports: The House Homeland Security Committee issued a subpoena on Wednesday to Jim Watkins, the owner of 8chan, to discuss extremist rhetoric on social media. Bipartisan Committee leaders sent Watkins a letter Tuesday asking for him to testify on his efforts to “investigate and mitigate the proliferation of extremist content” on 8chan. The anonymous forum has been linked to …

“There’s nothing about an insane criminal committing a horrible act that should lead to the government taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. That will only make us less safe. Yet that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now: a highly orchestrated effort to disarm American citizens. “It’s an effort to destroy the NRA, to defame our millions of members. Let’s fight …