by Audrey Conklin
Authorities have arrested at least 27 people for mass shooting threats since more than 30 people were killed in mass shootings on Aug. 3 and 4 in Texas and Ohio.
FBI Director Chris Wray ordered local offices around the country to be on the lookout for similar threats after the weekend of mass shootings, CNN reported.
“The FBI asks the American public to report to law enforcement any suspicious activity that is observed either in person or online,” the FBI said in an Aug. 4 statement.
A total of 31 people were shot dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in one weekend. Law enforcement officials arrested and investigated the following people since then:
- Wayne Lee Padgett, 31 was arrested on Aug. 4 on a threat charge after threatening to “shoot up” a Gibsonton, Florida, Walmart store, forcing everyone in the building to evacuate, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
- A 13-year-old boy was arrested on Aug. 7 on a threat charge and sent to juvenile detention after he made violent threats on Facebook concerning a Weslaco, Texas, Walmart store, according to the Weslaco Police Department.
- Dmitriy Andreychenko, 20, was arrested on Aug. 8 on a threat charge after walking into a Springfield, Missouri, Walmart store wearing body armor while carrying a handgun and rifle as a social experiment, the Springfield Police Department reported.
- Conor Climo, 23, was arrested on Aug. 9 in Las Vegas and charged with one count of possession of an unregistered firearm in connection to bomb making materials found in his home during an FBI investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a press release.
- Richard Clayton, 20, of Winter Park, Florida, was arrested on Aug. 9 and charged with making written threats to kill after he made a threat on Facebook saying, “[Three] more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back. Don’t go to Walmart next week,” according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
- An unnamed male was arrested on Aug. 10 on terroristic charges after he posted a threat to social media concerning a Harlingen, Texas, Walmart store, the Harlingen Police Department said in a statement.
- A Hattiesburg, Mississippi, teenager was arrested on Aug. 11 for making threats “regarding the potential safety of students at Oak Grove High School,” the school district said in a Facebook post.
- Miranda Perez, 28, was arrested on Aug. 11 on threat charges after she wrote on Facebook Messenger, “I’m thinking of doing a school shooting” at the Palm Beach, Florida, elementary school her two children were being moved to, according to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.
- Justin Olsen, 18, was arrested in Boardman, Ohio, on Aug. 12 after law enforcement found 15 long guns, 10 pistols, about 10,000 rounds of ammunition in his house and threats to shoot every federal agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives posted online, according to the FBI.
- Nathan Clark, 25, was arrested in Charles Town, West Virginia, on Aug. 12 on charges of making terror threats, according to the Jefferson Country Sheriff’s Department. “He was posting that he was a ticking time bomb that had already been diffused, that had already been lit and if necessary was going to kill people and was going to hurt people,” Sheriff Pete Dougherty said.
- A 15-year-old girl in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was arrested on Aug. 13 on threat charges for sharing a social media post indicating that she wanted to “shoot up” the town’s high school, the Albert Lea Police Department announced.
- Brian Thomas Keck, 35, was arrested on Aug. 13 on a charge of making a terror threat after he called into a Tempe, Arizona, army recruiting center and “said he was going to blow up the recruiting station,” according to a Tempe police report.
- Brandon Wagshol, 22, was arrested in Norwalk, Connecticut, on Aug. 15 on four counts of illegal possession of large-capacity magazines. The FBI and Norwalk Police Department revealed that “Wagshol was buying rifle parts online in an attempt to build his own rifle and “had a Facebook post that showed his interest in committing a mass shooting,” Norwalk police said in a statement posted to Facebook.
- A 15-year-old girl was arrested on Aug. 15 in Fresno, California, and charged with making a terror threat after she posted a photo of a Walmart display case containing several rifles with the caption, “Don’t come to school tomorrow,” according to the Fresno Police Department.
- Two juveniles were arrested on Aug. 16 for sending text messages to students at two schools in Tupelo, Mississippi, warning of a potential school shooting and saying “a lot of people” were “going to die,” Tupelo Police Department officials said during a press conference.
- A 14-year-old girl was arrested in Arizona on Aug. 16 on several charges for sending threatening messages toward a school through social media, according to the Tempe Police Department.
- A 15-year-old boy was arrested on Aug. 16 on threat charges in Volusia County, Florida, after using the fake name Dalton Barnhart on a video game and saying, “I, Dalton Barnhart, vow to bring my fathers m-15 to school and kill [seven] people at a minimum,” the Volusia Sheriff’s Department said in a Facebook post.
- Eric Linn, 35, was arrested in Seattle on Aug. 16 on a charge of making threatening communications after saying on Facebook that he was planning to kill someone in South Florida, as well as all Hispanic people in Miami and other places, the DOJ said in a press release.
- Tristan Scott Wix, 25, was arrested on Aug. 16 in Daytona Beach, Florida, on a charge of making written threats to kill after he sent a text saying he wanted to “break a world record for longest confirmed kill,” according to the Volusia Police Department.
- Farhan Sheikh, 19, was arrested in Chicago on Aug. 16 on a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce after threatening to “slaughter and murder any doctor, patient, or visitor” at a women’s reproductive health clinic on a social media platform, according to the DOJ.
- James P. Reardon, 20, was arrested on Aug. 17 in New Middletown, Ohio, on charges of telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing. Reardon posted an Instagram video of a man shooting a semi-automatic weapon with sirens and screams in the background with the caption, “Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist Seamus O’Rearedon,” even though the shooting never happened, the FBI Cleveland Division reported.
- Mark Anthony Dietrich, 18, was arrested in Claremore, Oklahoma, Sunday on charges of threats and violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act after he threatened to kill the families of officers who responded to an incident he was involved in on Aug. 17, the Claremore Police Department said in a statement posted to Facebook.
- Arnold Holmes was arrested in Reed City, Michigan, Sunday on three charges including threatening domestic terrorism. Holmes threatened Ferris State University, hospitals and a local Veterans Affairs office in a series of YouTube videos, Osceola County Police Department officials said during a press conference.
- Nainoa Gazman Figueroa, 18, was arrested in Maui Monday and charged with terroristic threatening after writing, “Feelin horny might shoot up a school idk yet,” on Twitter, according to the Maui Police Department.
- Thomas McVicker, 38, was arrested Monday and charged with interstate transmission of threat to injure after he made “credible threats to conduct a mass shooting and suicide” at a church in Memphis, Tennessee, to his friend, according to court papers.
- Daniel Nazarchuk, 37, was arrested in Rapid City, South Dakota, Monday and charged with making terror threats, possession of controlled substance and intentional damage to property after messaging the sheriff’s office and threatening to blow up various government entities, the Rapid City Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
Various police departments noted that while some of the suspects are minors, all mass-killing threats must be taken seriously.
The FBI has posted a number of other press releases that detail other threats and weapon seizures not listed above since the El Paso shooting.
President Donald Trump, after initially expressing interest in expanding gun background checks after over 30 people were shot dead in August, has since cooled on the idea.
“People don’t realize we have very strong background checks right now,” the president told reporters while leaving New Jersey Tuesday, adding that he is “very, very concerned with the Second Amendment.”
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Audrey Conklin is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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