Minnesota Man Collared In Alleged Mass Shooting Plot

December 18, 2022 Extremists, Mass Shootings

From the DOJ’s Minnesota office:

A Savage man has been arrested and charged in a federal criminal complaint for possession of a machine gun and for attempting to receive and possess unregistered destructive devices, specifically hand grenades, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents and a law enforcement affidavit, on September 27, 2022, the FBI received a tip from a concerned citizen reporting disturbing behavior of a 20-year-old man, later identified as River William Smith.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation revealed evidence that Smith was preparing for a violent exchange with police. Smith stated he is “pro mass shooting,” sympathized with the Parkland school shooter, and expressed admiration for the individual charged with the recent shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub.

The FBI also discovered Smith had access to fully automatic rifles, handguns, suppressors, body armor and a Kevlar helmet. Smith stated that he was preparing to fight the police and was dedicated to dying in that fight.

Smith asked a government informant for grenades and an illegal part to convert his AR-15 style rifle into a fully automatic machine gun.

On December 14, 2022, under supervision of law enforcement, a meeting between Smith and a government informant was arranged. At the meeting, Smith purchased three hand grenades and four auto sears. Smith was arrested by law enforcement.

Smith is charged with one count of possession of a machine gun and one count of attempt to receive and possess destructive devices. He appeared today in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge David T. Schultz. Smith was ordered to remain in detention pending further proceedings.

The Associated Press reports:



The warning signs — strikingly similar to the circumstances that preceded the shooting at Colorado’s Club Q last month — prompted a monthslong federal investigation into River William Smith, and resulted in a far different outcome. Smith came to the attention of the FBI this fall, after he frequented a firearm range and gun club wearing tactical gear, body armor and a “Punisher” mask, which the FBI said has been used by right-wing extremist groups to reference “the last thing a victim sees.”

Smith, who also expressed interest in joining neo-Nazi paramilitary groups and fired an AK-47-style rifle in his home in 2019, was charged with federal weapons counts this week. Smith, who lives in the Minneapolis suburb of Savage, had told the informant that the shooter who killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub last month was a “hero,” called Black people “agents of satan,” and said he was ready to engage the police “with armor and full autos,” according to an FBI affidavit.

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