‘He was young and dumb’
Armed man headed to Pride fest made gun threats and had other troubles with the law.
It was a random yet chilling discovery.
Just hours after a gunman had opened fire at a popular gay nightclub in Florida, Santa Monica police stumbled upon a parked motorist with a cache of weapons and explosive chemicals — some displayed openly in his vehicle.
When asked what he was doing, 20-year-old James Wesley Howell told officers he was bound for the L.A. Pride festival.
As the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and the nation as a whole on Monday continued to mourn the deaths of 49 Orlando clubgoers, investigators in California said they did not believe Howell’s actions were tied to the massacre or that he had intended to cause harm at L.A. Pride.
Nevertheless, it remained unclear exactly why Howell had driven from his home state of Indiana with a small arsenal — and what, if anything, he intended to do with it.
Those with knowledge of Howell’s past said he has a hot temper and a penchant for intimidation.
“The boy was young and dumb and had a mouth on him,” said Jeremy Hebert, a former Indiana neighbor who once was threatened at gunpoint by Howell, according to court documents.
Howell was arrested just before 5 a.m. Sunday in Santa Monica after a resident reported a suspected prowler. Officers arrived to find Howell sitting in his white Acura.
Upon searching the vehicle, they discovered three assault rifles, high-capacity
magazines, ammunition and a 5-gallon bucket containing “chemicals capable of forming an improvised explosive device,” police said.
Howell was booked by Santa Monica police on suspicion of possessing an explosive device, possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle and possessing high-capacity magazines.
According to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller, Howell “remains in state custody while investigators consult with prosecutors at the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles and the United States attorney’s office to determine whether Mr. Howell will be charged at either the state or federal level in relation to the weapons and other items found in his vehicle.”
Howell is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, jail records show.
Indiana court documents show that Howell had been accused on three occasions of threatening people with firearms; in two of those, the alleged victim was a man who identified himself as Howell’s boyfriend.
In October 2015, at a McDonald’s in Charlestown, Ind., a manager informed law enforcement that one of her employees, Richard Hambrick, had said his boyfriend had called and threatened to shoot him when he got off work.
When the officer spoke with Howell, he denied the allegations.
Days later, officers were called to Howell’s residence, where they were met by Hambrick, who said he was there to collect some of his possessions. When he entered the yard, Hambrick said, Howell came out with an “AR rifle,” pointed it at him and told him to leave.
“James told me if I stepped foot in his yard, he would kill me,” Hambrick told police. A witness, according to court records, verified Hambrick’s account.
Howell, however, told police that he told Hambrick to leave his yard and then grabbed his rifle, held it up on his shoulder and continued to ask him to leave. Other witnesses said that Howell had not pointed a weapon at Hambrick.
One day later, Howell pointed a gun at a neighbor who was arguing with one of his roommates. Howell was arrested on charges of intimidation with a weapon and pointing a firearm, convicted and sentenced to probation earlier this year, court documents show.
One neighbor told police that Howell “is going to get someone hurt and he needs to quit pointing guns at people,” documents show.
Months later, he was arrested in Kentucky for allegedly evading police during a traffic stop.
Howell was stopped in February on an expressway in Jefferson County for a traffic violation, said his attorney, Ryan Vantrease. The officer approached Howell in his vehicle, got his driver’s license information, and then returned to his police cruiser.
That’s when Howell “gunned out of there,” Vantrease said. “There was no high-speed chase or anything like that,” he said.
Howell got away, but police had his information. Investigators presented evidence to the district attorney, who filed charges against Howell, his attorney said. In that case, Howell is charged with felony evading a police officer, reckless driving and speeding.
Robert Boyd, Howell’s second attorney in the Kentucky case, told The Times on Monday that his client’s parents were “shocked to learn about the situation” in Santa Monica and were “fully cooperating” with federal investigators.
Initially, Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said on Twitter that Howell had told one of her officers that he wanted “to harm Gay Pride event.” A department spokesman later said the tweet was a misstatement and that although Howell told investigators that he was going to the Pride festival, he did not make statements about his intentions.
Boyd said Howell’s family was concerned about the Santa Monica Police Department spreading “misinformation” about their son’s arrest.
Details about the case, Boyd said, “may have been blown out of proportion.”
“They are very interested to find out the true facts of the case,” he said.