Man with weapons & explosives arrested on his way to L.A.’s gay pride parade
Meanwhile, security is tightened at southern California’s theme parks.
California’s Santa Monica police may have prevented West Coast mass shooting today, by arresting a armed man with explosives heading to the areas’s gay pride parade.
Authorities in Santa Monica found possible explosives as well as a cache of weapons and ammunition Sunday in the car of a man who told them he planned to look for a friend at the L.A. Pride festival in West Hollywood, a law enforcement source said.
Federal and local law enforcement decided against canceling the annual parade, which went forward Sunday morning under tightened security. Investigators are now trying to piece together what happened but said they don’t believe there is any connection between the incident and the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that killed at least 50 people overnight.
Early Sunday, Santa Monica police received a call about a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered an individual who told officers he was waiting for a friend, according to a law enforcement source familiar with details of the arrest. That led officers to inspect the car and find several weapons – including three rifles, one of them an “assault rifle” — and a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb, said the source. The car had Indiana plates.
The man was detained after receiving a tip:
A tipster called police early Sunday morning about a prowler and found the suspect nearby. The suspect was arrested around 5 a.m. local time.
Police said they “were not aware of what the suspect’s intentions were at this point.”
The incident is not thought to be connected to Sunday’s shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
Participants at the LA Pride parade held a moment of silence for the victims in Orlando.
Security has been tightened at all of Southern California’s theme parks:
Law enforcement agencies have stepped up security at theme parks in Southern California following the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that more deputies would be in and around Universal Studios on Sunday. Patrols in Universal City have also increased, authorities said.
Anaheim police told THR the department takes Disneyland “very seriously” and the park would be closely watched. He added that the park always has a high police presence.
UPDATE (by WAJ):
Santa Monica police have retracted earlier claim that man arrested wanted to do "harm" to LA Gay Pride event https://t.co/UIf2fgsjrl
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 13, 2016
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Comments
Another random incident.
If we give up our weapons we will be so much safer…
No, of course that won’t make us safer.
The President is absolutely wrong.
He’s wrong about most things. Of course, he’ll have live time protection so HE doesn’t have to worry.
I find it interesting, and telling for anyone who has dealt with the American news media in the last decade, that hours after the suspect was arrested, after all threat to the Gay Pride parade has passed [it being over], the weapons and Tannerite are safely secured, and in the wake of an ISIS mass terror attack on gays in Orlando; we still have neither description nor name of the suspect.
Normally that means that the suspect is a government-protected class that the Narrative will not allow to be named. Usually either Muslim or illegal invader from Mexico. Today’s events and the circumstances would make one lean towards Muslim, with a strong suspicion of a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome.
So expect that they will sit on this information for a day or two to hope that it gets buried in the memory hole.
If it does come out, I would expect it to come out in a British paper, whose version of PC does not cover US matters.
Subotai Bahadur
Update: suspect is identified as James Wesley Howell, and he is a white male who looks like one would expect someone with that name and not a former Muhammed Ali Akhbar.
However, I noticed the Santa Monica Police spokesman saying very carefully that the only statement that he made when arrested was that he was “going to the gay pride parade”, and did not mention doing harm. Also, there are reports that he has a friend who is involved in putting on the parade.
Yes, he had guns and Tannerite [which is usually used to make explosive targets for displays and is really not that high an explosive]. And apparently it was not assembled into a device, but more may come out on that. Having apparently driven from Indiana, I have to note that what would be considered an arms cache suitable for starting a revolution in L.A., would be considered being underarmed in the rest of the country.
There is more to be traced back, but it cannot be excluded that he traveled to see his friend and the gay pride parade as part of an effort to leave a closet. In which case, it was not a stealthy transformation.
Why would he travel from IN to CA to attack a Gay Pride Parade when there was one right here in Indy this weekend?
Further update to the police retraction of the statement that Howell had threatened the parade/festival.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gay-pride-la-weapons-20160612-snap-story.html
Apparently Howell is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. And according to someone who knows him back home . . . is himself bi.
Looks more and more like he was heading to the parade and festival to be with kindred spirits. But the media was desperate to find some sort of White, Conservative bigot and threat they could point to.
Sad day when that conjecture makes total sense. Every day I don’t think I can hate our media more…then I do.
“Early Sunday, Santa Monica police received a call about a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered an individual who told officers he was waiting for a friend, according to a law enforcement source familiar with details of the arrest. That led officers to inspect the car and find several weapons – including three rifles, one of them an “assault rifle” — and a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb, said the source.”
Sounds like it could be an overreaction by LEO. Guns, ammunition, and tannerite, could have just been out to have a good time in a field somewhere. Of course, I wasn’t there to see how the individual reacted with the officer.
Around here that would not raise an eyebrow… throw in a twelve-pack of bud-light and you’ve got the makings of a fun afternoon on the ranch.
Remember you’re seven times more likely to be killed by a white, home-grown, right-wing terrorist than any other kind, as long as we classify people like Omar Saddiqui Mateen as white, home-grown, and right-wing, or as not terrorists.
Omar was registered as a Democrat since 2012, makes it harder to label him right-wing.
Don’t be silly.
No true Democrat would do what he did. Therefore he’s not a Democrat. Also no true Muslim would do what he did. Therefore he’s not a Muslim.
Obviously, his actions prove him to be a Donald-Trump-worshipping White Male Christian Fascist.
Duh.
Tannerite® is not really a top choice for anyone wanting to make a pipe bomb. Not even in the top ten. It’s very hard to set off.
This one has a few parts that don’t yet fit together. It sounds like he had enough weaponry and explosives to do harm to someone at some point. But he also had a friend the authorities contacted associated with the Pride parade, so I read. So unless he was planning to create a fake hate crime like some do, you would think his target and timing was somewhere in the future. But what is provided so far, you might think he has “anti-government” issues. But that might be a media reach just to assign him as a counterbalance to the Islamic terrorist from hours earlier.
Is the calling of someone is politics “Adolf Hitler” even noteworthy anymore?
He went to California. That alone makes him clinically insane.