Man going to West Hollywood gay pride parade caught with assault rifles and explosives in car
A 20-year-old man going to a massive gay pride parade in West Hollywood, Calif. was arrested on Sunday morning with assault rifles, ammunition and explosive materials in his car Sunday, police said.
The bust came the same morning a terrorist in Orlando killed at least 50 people in a gay nightclub, in the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the two incidents are "completely unrelated."
The suspect, James Wesley Howell of Indiana, was taken into custody by Santa Monica police officers after a resident reported his "suspicious" behavior shortly before 5 a.m., cops said.
Cops found three assault rifles, high capacity magazines, ammunition and camouflage clothing in his vehicle, a law enforcement source told the Daily News.
They also found a 5-gallon bucket of chemicals that can be used for forming an improvised explosive device, Santa Monica police said.
A source identified the material as tannerite-type powder.
Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said on Twitter Sunday that Howell admitted he planned "to harm (the) Gay Pride event." However, Seabrooks later clarified that the initial reports of wanting to do harm were incorrect, and that the suspect had only admitted to going to the parade.
The FBI is investigating the arrest. Police have released no other details on his possible motive.
Before it was deactivated Sunday, Howell’s Facebook page said he attended Ballard High School in Louisville, Ky., before he became an auditor at Clarcor Air Filtration Products in Jeffersonville, Ind.
"Wow. I just can't believe it," Howell's friend and former co-worker Cary Goodman told the Daily News on Sunday night. "I worked with him until probably a month ago. He seemed like he was a pretty good person."
Goodman said that Howell mentioned he had a male partner, so he was surprised police said he might have been targeting the Pride event to cause harm.
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