FBI: Ohio man threatened mass shooting
Text messages to estranged wife lead to federal charges.
A Cuyahoga CLEVELAND —
Falls man threatened to carry out a “historic” mass shooting at a Las Vegas casino, where his estranged wife worked.
Wei Li, 28, also threatened to carry out a mass shooting at a church with at least 1,000 people in attendance, according to the FBI.
Li is charged in U.S. District Court with interstate threatening communication and destruction of evidence.
Li sent multiple text messages to his estranged wife on Nov. 6, the FBI said. He threatened to kill his wife and to shoot up the Las Vegas hotel and casino where she worked. The FBI has not said what hotel Li referenced.
He also sent his wife photos of himself holding a rifle and knives and a list of Las Vegas casinos, court records say. He also told her that he had an automatic rifle, court records say.
He told his wife that if his green card didn’t go through, that he’d kill her, court records say.
Prior to the text messages, Li went to the casino, walked around and told his wife that no security or police stopped him, court records say.
“No one checked me,” he said, according to court records.
He told his wife that his killing spree would make history and that he would blame his wife for all of the deaths, the FBI said. His wife responded by saying: “You are too cruel” and “Are you sick?” among other interactions in the profanity-laced text string between the two, court records say.
Li also mentioned carrying out a mass shooting at a church.
“There are 1,000 people in our church,” Li said in a text message to his wife, according to court records. “I will make the biggest in history.”
Li’s wife became fearful for her life and the lives of the people at the casino she worked for, court records say.
Cuyahoga Falls police and FBI agents interviewed Li last week. During the interview, Li confessed to sending the text messages, court records say. He said the threats were not serious, court records say.
He also said he did not have any guns. He had a rifle in 2014, but it was stolen. That was verified by Cuyahoga Falls police, according to court records.
Investigators found the phone he used to send the threats at his home, next to two knives, court records say.
Li took out his phone and deleted the string of text messages that included the threats, the FBI said. Li at first denied deleting the messages but later admitted that he did because the texts were “bad,” court records say.
He was arrested Nov. 10 and booked into the Summit County Jail, where he was held on $500,000 bond until his case was transferred to federal court.
The threats came after two of the most deadly mass shootings in history, one that killed 58 people at a concert outside a Las Vegas casino and another at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that killed 26 people.