Cops: Tips may have stopped 3 shootings
Authorities believe they may have stopped three mass shootings after arresting three men, including a Norwalk college student, who allegedly expressed interest in or threatened to carry them out.
The arrests come just two weeks after massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which left at least 31 people dead. Police said these three young men — one from Norwalk,
and the others from Florida and Ohio — all expressed hopes of becoming the latest in a growing list of mass shooters.
The three men, police said, were thwarted after authorities received tips from the public about alleged threats made on their social media accounts.
Brandon Wagshol, 22, of Norwalk, was charged with four counts of illegal possession of largecapacity magazines after he was arrested Thursday in a joint investigation between Norwalk police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received a tip that Wagshol was “attempting to purchase largecapacity rifle magazines from out of state,” a news release said.
The FBI and Norwalk police executed a search warrant Wednesday night at Wagshol’s Bedford Avenue home where they say they seized a .40 caliber handgun, a .22 caliber rifle, a rifle scope with a laser, four firearm optic sites, a firearm flashlight, body armor with a titanium plate, a full camouflage outfit, a ballistic helmet, tactical gloves, a camouflage bag, computers, and numerous .40 caliber, .22 caliber and .300 blackout rounds of ammunition, police said.
The attorney for Wagshol said in court on Friday his client was just trying to spend quality time with his father — an avid gun owner — and never intended anything malicious.
Authorities said a Florida man has been accused of threatening a mass shooting in text messages.
Tristan Scott Wix, 25, of Daytona Beach, sent several text messages stating he wanted to “break a world record for longest confirmed kill ever.” The office says that in another message, Wix texted he wanted to reach 100 victims and had decided on a location. It was unclear who Wix was texting or how deputies obtained the information.
Authorities say Wix was arrested Friday at a supermarket on a charge of making written threats to kill.
Wix told detectives he didn’t own firearms, but was “fascinated” with mass shootings, according to police.
James Patrick Reardon, 20, was arrested Saturday after allegedly threatening to carry out a shooting at a Jewish community center in Youngstown, Ohio.
Reardon was charged with one count of telecommunications harassment and one count of aggravated menacing, according to online jail records.
New Middletown Police Chief Vincent D’Egidio said an Instagram account, @ira_seamus,
belonging to Reardon shared a video that showed a man firing a gun. The post, which was shown to an officer who was on an unrelated call, tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, D’Egidio told CNN in an interview. Youngstown is about 13 miles north of New Middletown.
When authorities examined the rest of the Instagram account, there were images of Reardon or someone else shooting guns, D’Egidio told CNN, and numerous antiSemitic comments and white nationalist content.