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POLICE IN CALIFORNIA found weapons, ammunition and bomb-making material in a car belonging to a man who told them he was planning to attend Gay Pride festivities yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The discovery came hours after the deadliest mass shooting in US history, which took place at a gay nightclub on the other side of the country in Orlando, Florida.
Fifty people were killed and 53 wounded after a gunman identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a US citizen of Afghan descent, opened fire in a shooting that US President Barack Obama was calling a terror attack and hate crime.
The LA Times cited a law enforcement source as saying police discovered the weapons cache after responding to a complaint about a prowler in the beachside city of Santa Monica, west of downtown Los Angeles.
The man, who was arrested, told police he was waiting for a friend.
Santa Monica Police spokesman Saul Rodriguez told the newspaper that man was from Indiana but that authorities “were not aware of what the suspect’s intentions were at this point.”
The FBI was investigating possible links between the man and the Gay Pride event, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Sheriff’s officials noted that there were no “specific or credible” threats against the greater Los Angeles area, but had stepped-up security at the Gay Pride event.
Parade
Some 400,000 people had been expected to attend a Gay Pride parade yesterday before the Orlando shooting took place.
It went ahead, but with a slightly sombre mood.
Attorney Perry Handy, 48, was watching the parade with friends but said he had thought twice about coming out after hearing about the car full of weapons and ammunition.
“We’re all still in shock. I’ve been coming to the parade for 20 some years and last night’s event was clearly a step backward in our culture,” he told AFP.
Alice Stanford, 46, who was marching in the parade with a union representing hotel employees, said participants were “heavy-hearted” but would not be kept away.
“Our lives go on and we are not going to be stopped by fear and violence. We celebrate who we are in spite of events like this,” she said, wearing a T-shirt that read “Love has no borders”.
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Well done to the police.
Well we know where the
Thumbs down are coming from.
Scary stuff. Well done to the police for catching this guy before he could do any damage.
Nice job by the police. This and the terrible events in Orlando are going going to push US voters more towards Trump. I am surprised with IS strategy as I expect that if (when) Trump gets elects he may try a new approach to eliminating IS
What does this have to do with IS?
The guy who committed the Orlando attack called up 9/11 before entering the club to declare that he was going to attack the club in the name of Daesh. A group connected to Daesh also claimed responsibility for the attack.
There’s a very high likelihood that the Orlando attack and this planned attack in Los Angeles are connected.
“There’s a very high likelihood that the Orlando attack and this planned attack in Los Angeles are connected.” They aren’t. The man arrested in LA is identified as James Wesley Howell, a white, non Muslim from Indiana.
Orlando was connected to Isis. He was on the fbi radar since 2013. The police even came out and said that he contacted them pledging allegiance to Isis.
The guy in LA was more than likely a christian terrorist.
from what I read about the LA guy , he isn’t muslim and had a history of firearms offenses , hed been arrested for pointing guns at people , probably more your stereotype loser sociopath
Not Muslim, so a “troubled loner” as opposed to a “terrorist”.
@daisy , there is a difference between someone doing something for their own reasons versus someone who feels it natural to plug into Islamic terrorism. In Orlando a Muslim preacher had delivered a talk where he specially said that gay people should be killed.
Terrorism is the use of violence to further a political agenda. You don’t have to follow a religion to be a terrorist. The potential shooter in LA was clearly targeting LGBTQIA people. That’s his politics. Call a spade a spade. He’s a terrorist.
And are people really going to ignore the violently homophobic rhetoric that’s categorised conservative US media and politics the past couple of years following the SCOTUS decision and the current bathroom “controversy”?
The Orlando shooter’s father and ex-wife have both come out to say that he wasn’t religious. Didn’t pray, wasn’t partaking in Ramadam. Both have also said that he was violently homophobic, with his father saying the breaking point was most likely when he got outraged at seeing two men kissing at Miami beach. Bonus: He also wanted to be a cop. He targeted a gay club, on Latinx night, when trans performers were headlining. But we’re just gonna ignore the fact that prominent politicians and Fox News have been vilifying all of those groups for years, even more so the last couple?
We’re just gonna ignore all of that, even when there’s the whiter than white shooter in LA the next day who also wanted to kill LGBTQIA people? You’re all so desperate to blame ISIS for anything you can’t see the forest for the trees. This was a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism targeting the gay community.
If you hear hooves don’t think zebras…think homophobe.
people that grow up in Muslim households tend to be more homophobic, that is just a fact.
Have you forgotten the rampant homophobia from the No campaign last year? From Iona who get tax exemption and charity status because they “promote Catholic values”? What about the pre-dominantly Catholic Uganda where homosexuality is punishable by death?
The problem isn’t Islam, the problem is homophobia, and that knows no religious bounds.
WTF is wrong with these people !!
Hateful homophobes that can’t look beyond “Marriage = 1 man and 1 woman” because of indoctrination.
Daisy it is wrong to confuse being against gay marriage with homophobia. Im gay, and believe me the amount of gay friends I have that are against gay marriage may shock you. Personally, I voted Yes in 2015
The gays should arm themselves.
Was “Cal” banned?
They do like to work out.
Which ‘They’ is this, Dylan?
Maybe he was one of the “good guys with guns” that we’re told are essential to prevent bad guys with guns killing people.
Garbage. When are you going to tell your readers that this “terrorist mastermind” was in fact gay and going to Pride to meet his boyfriend?
LA County Sherriff: So far, there is no connection to the attack at the gay nightclub in Orlando, and no conclusive connection to an LA Pride threat other than the man saying he was there to attend the festival, Tyler said.
Sorry for the replying to my own comment, but articles like this are what cause us to live in fear. It’s highly irresponsible journalism all to win a few clicks for ad revenue.
Do people normally travel to Pride with military weaponry in their cars?
All the media attention we give these people will just inspire copycats…
In the US, homophobes have easy access to assault rifles.
In Ireland homophobes have easy access to various “Institutes”.
Never call a member of an institute a “homophobe”. Homophobes get incensed by being described as homophobes.
There was supposedly two other shooters in the niteclub who got away this came from a victim who survived told by her family.
have your say