Potential identical Las Vegas hotel shooting massacre averted

[Teelie]

This is hopefully the only person with this plan for another mass shooting on New Years Eve. His plans, whatever they were, fortunately were thwarted by the fact he was so drunk the police had to wait for him to sober up to question him and then give him minor offense charges. It is Texas afterall.

Guest at Houston hotel caught with AR-15, ammo in his room above NYE celebration

A drunk man staying at a Houston hotel had an arsenal of weapons including an AR-15 inside his 28th-floor room above a major New Year’s Eve bash, cops said.

The man, whose identity hasn’t been released, also had a handgun, a shotgun and troves of ammunition, cops told local media.

Officials said there were no “specific threats” after deploying SWAT teams to the Hyatt Regency Downtown early Sunday morning.

“Situation from this morning at downtown hotel is contained,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo later tweeted.

Police were reportedly forced to wait for the man to sober up before they could interview him.

Hyatt security called the cops around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when a guest at the hotel bar became increasingly drunk, the Houston Chronicle reported.

They initially tried to have the man go back to his room, the newspaper reported. He started to fight back, however, prompting officials to call the cops.

Houston police and security went to his room to collect his belongings, where they found ammunition all over the room, local NBC affiliate KPRC reported.

They looked around further and found the firearms, police Lt. Gordon Macintosh told KPRC.

The discovery harkens back to the grisly Las Vegas shooting nearly three months ago, when gunman Stephen Paddock smuggled more than a dozen weapons into a hotel room overlooking a country music festival and fired on the crowd, killing 58 and injuring hundreds more.

He was booked with trespassing and unlawfully carrying a weapon.

The suspect’s Chevrolet Silverado was also reportedly towed and inspected.

The Hyatt has a sprawling New Year’s Eve party planned for midnight Sunday, according to its website. The bash is supposed to span four floors and will ring in the New Year by dropping 50,000 balloons.

New York Daily News

 

[Spider-Aziz]

This is hopefully the only person with this plan for another mass shooting on New Years Eve. His plans, whatever they were, fortunately were thwarted by the fact he was so drunk the police had to wait for him to sober up to question him and then give him minor offense charges. It is Texas afterall.

They sure shouldn't condemn him for more than what he was caught for, beats using excessive force and overuse of authority.

At least this once, we have some decent news instead of the usual "Mass Shooting Happened", thank God for that.

 

[squeekness]

Let's hope this puts to an end any chance of this being some new and horrible trend.

 

[Teelie]

I know that. What is disturbing is he had the ammunition and weapons to pull off another massacre but he was caught before he did it, which is good, but there is nothing to charge him on for intent, which is not so good.

 

[squeekness]

Makes you wonder what new and interesting changes hoteliers are now going to have to make to stop people bringing in guns.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I know that. What is disturbing is he had the ammunition and weapons to pull off another massacre but he was caught before he did it, which is good, but there is nothing to charge him on for intent, which is not so good.

If they do charge for murderous intent, then there is the possibility to charge the provider for criminal penalty, like a legal merchant and a mediator licensed to carry arms.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Makes me wonder how much of a role the media plays in these things here. Of course, when a national tragedy happens they have a duty to report it but at the same time others are seeing how much attention these killers are getting as well as how they perpetrated the attacks and/or what things they may want to or not do for their own plans.

Just seems like we are in this vicious cycle that has no end in sight.

 

[terry78]

What was even his goal, to be infamous?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

From reports I've read on some of these individuals that have committed these acts part of it is for them to go down in infamy. In their sick minds it's some type of demented high score to one up previous shootings.

 

[chamber-music]

The news has gone by if it bleeds, it leads for decades now. That genie isn't going back in the box.

These mass shooter types are usually mentally unwell or just angry and wanting to lash out. Anything can trigger these folks. People have been blaming violent acts on all manner of popular culture for years. Movies, the news, music, television, art and so on. We can't censor everything for a tiny minority of society that might commit violent acts.

We still don't know why the Vegas shooter even went on his rampage.

 

[Marvolo]

Should have confiscated his guns and ammo and required him to have a psych evaluation and criminal and medical background check before he could get his guns and ammo back. There is no reason for him to have that many guns and that much ammo in a hotel room.

But this is 'murica! So we can't do anything sensible. Instead law enforcement has to give him his weapons and ammo back even if they think he was planning to use those weapons and ammo for mass murder.

'Murica, **** yeah!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The news has gone by if it bleeds, it leads for decades now. That genie isn't going back in the box.

These mass shooter types are usually mentally unwell or just angry and wanting to lash out. Anything can trigger these folks. People have been blaming violent acts on all manner of popular culture for years. Movies, the news, music, television, art and so on. We can't censor everything for a tiny minority of society that might commit violent acts.

We still don't know why the Vegas shooter even went on his rampage.

It's not really about censoring it per se, more like not blasting it non-stop around the clock speculating on every mundane detail. Not only may that help curb others who are thinking along those lines but it is inherently much better for those close to these tragedies to not have re-live these acts over and over anytime they turn on the tv.

But like you said, if it bleeds it leads, because God-forbid anything get in the way of their ratings and/or clicks. Can't have that add revenue going down for any reason.

 

[squeekness]

Should have confiscated his guns and ammo and required him to have a psych evaluation and criminal and medical background check before he could get his guns and ammo back. There is no reason for him to have that many guns and that much ammo in a hotel room.

But this is 'murica! So we can't do anything sensible. Instead law enforcement has to give him his weapons and ammo back even if they think he was planning to use those weapons and ammo for mass murder.

'Murica, **** yeah!

If they really thought he was planning to do something, why on earth would they give him everything back? That makes no sense.

 

[Marvolo]

If they really thought he was planning to do something, why on earth would they give him everything back? That makes no sense.

I checked out Texas's legal code.

Under Texas law normally Unlawfully Carrying a Weapon be a Class A misdemeanor. They probably cant indefinitely keep his property for a misdemeanor. However, and this is where it gets good. Ulawfully carrying a weapon in or on any premises licensed or issued a permit by Texas for the sale of alcoholic beverages is a third degree felony. If the hotel has a bar or sells alcohol this idiot committed a felony. In which case law enforcement may be able to keep his weapons.

 

[squeekness]

I mean, they can't say "We thwarted an attack!" on one hand and yet give him the guns back, so I'm confused. Was he a dumbass with bringing his guns to the wrong place, or was this guy actually going to do something?

 

[Marvolo]

I mean, they can't say "We thwarted an attack!" on one hand and yet give him the guns back, so I'm confused. Was he a dumbass with bringing his guns to the wrong place, or was this guy actually going to do something?

What they can prove and what they can charge him with and what the law allows them to do with the guy's personal property will determine whether he gets his guns back.

Even if they think he was going to carry out an attack they would have to actually prove it. And so far he has only been charged with Tresspassing and Unlawfully Carrying a Weapon.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

There is no reason for him to have that many guns and that much ammo in a hotel room.

How did the hotel let that pass?

 

[squeekness]

I've never had a bag checked by a hotel. You break a gun down and put it in a suitcase, who's going to know it's there?

 

[Mike_D202]

Our casino hotel has a very strict no weapons allowed policy, last night we gave someone the choice to either put his pocket knife in his vehicle or he'd have to leave and he chose to leave instead. If someone has a firearm in the hotel (housekeepers usually spot it during cleaning and report it) then we call our Tribal Police and if the person has a permit, they're reminded of our policy and they have them bring the gun back out to their vehicle.

But, this guy has an AR-15 and a shotgun with lots of ammunition not to mention a handgun?! This is a lot more than "expressing our gun rights" shpeel. This might very well be felonious as stated above.

 

[Teelie]

I mean, they can't say "We thwarted an attack!" on one hand and yet give him the guns back, so I'm confused. Was he a dumbass with bringing his guns to the wrong place, or was this guy actually going to do something?

Maybe it is plausible he had all those guns for an innocuous reason but the amount of ammunition? That immediately raises a red flag over why he would need all of that on him.