Crime: ‘Cop Killer’-inscribed bullets, rifles, pipe bomb, genocide manifesto discovered after Campbell prowling arrest.
Los Gatos man, 32, reportedly wrote of wish to ‘wipe out’ Black, Latino, Jewish
CAMPBELL >> When police officers arrested a Los Gatos man on suspicion of prowling around a car lot last week, authorities say they discovered far more troubling threats after they searched his truck, turning up a cache of weapons, a handwritten manifesto about committing genocide and bullets that he personally inscribed, one of them with the words “Cop Killer.”
Wesley Charles Martines also reportedly had sketched out plan to violently take over a sporting goods store and tie up its employees.
The manifesto, according to Campbell police and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, depicted “violent scenarios/fantasies” and contained writings voicing his desire to “wipe out the Black, Hispanic and Jewish populations.”
Martines, 32, was arrested July 9, and a criminal complaint shows he was charged with seven felonies encompassing possession of assault weapons, a silencer, illegal drugs and a pipe bomb filled with pellets but that had not been infused with explosive material. He was arraigned earlier this week and is being held in the Elmwood men’s jail in lieu of $300,000 bail.
“There’s a lot of evidence to unpack still, but based on what we have seen thus far and what was recovered in the car, we believe that this person was going to commit some sort of violence against the community,” Campbell police Capt. Ian White said Thursday. “We believe we prevented a tragic incident from occurring.”
Campbell police say Martines attracted suspicion after a business owner based on East Sunnyoaks Avenue was watching his security monitors just after midnight July 9 and saw a man peering into vehicles at a car lot and looking inside a storage shed. Officers, suspecting it might be a burglary, were dispatched to the area and stopped Martines’ white Ford F-250 pickup truck, which matched the 911 caller’s description.
One of the officers who conducted the vehicle stop soon spotted what looked like a rifle in the backseat, and Martines claimed it was an Airsoft rifle, according to a Campbell police report. Martines was ordered out of his truck and a patdown search turned up a loaded handgun magazine in his pants pocket, police wrote.
Martines reportedly denied any suspicious activity to police, saying “he just wanted to look at the price of one of the cars on the lot and denied opening a storage closet on the property,” the report states.
During Martines’ detainment, officers described him as being softspoken and calm. Martines told them he had been at a county-run outdoor firing range in South San Jose earlier in the day. He also reportedly explained the pipe bomb by saying he found the item among scrap metal at a neighbor’s house near Vasona Lake County Park and said it “looked out of place and weird,” and that he had unscrewed one of the pipe caps, looked inside and screwed it back on.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad was summoned to examine the item, and the technicians determined that it had some components of a pipe bomb but was inert.
Police recovered from Martines’ truck two illegal AR-style rifles — both outfitted with a silencer or suppressor — a Glock 9 mm handgun within reach of the driver’s seat and what appeared to be personally inscribed bullets with messages, in addition to “Cop Killer,” that read “To: Widow From: Grim Reaper,” “First of many” and “Heard around the world.”
They also found body armor with rifle-resistant plating, with its pockets stuffed with loaded rifle magazines and throwing knives. Some of the magazine clips recovered were described as illegal highcapacity clips. Police also reported seizing heroin and methamphetamine from the truck.
Police and prosecutors say they obtained a gun violence restraining order to take custody of Martines’ firearms, which is typically sought when law enforcement or a family member of a person has reasonable belief that they could pose a public danger. Such an order is temporary and can be renewed by a judge if sufficient evidence is later shown to affirm the person’s risk.
“We hope to find out more information about the motive and reasoning behind why this person was carrying this arsenal around,” White said.
Martines declined a request for an interview from jail July 15.
In a news release July 15, District Attorney Jeff Rosen alluded to the May 26 mass shooting at a VTA railyard in San Jose that killed nine people in emphasizing the importance of public vigilance. Rosen says he plans to meet with federal officials after it was learned in the wake of the shooting that the gunman had writings expressing hatred toward the transit agency during a 2016 customs stop.
He contends that robbed local authorities of a chance to intervene before the massacre.
“Law enforcement saved lives before the blood and tears flowed,” Rosen said in reference to the Martines arrest. “All of us have a role in stopping the next mass shooting, suicide or domestic violence murder. Please call law enforcement if you know that someone is armed and dangerous.”