There Was Another Major Threat at Pride Today
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New reports reveal that there was a threat to a gay pride event on the West Coast Sunday morning, the same day a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida took 50 lives. Police arrested a man with assault weapons and possible explosives on his way to the Los Angeles Pride festival in West Hollywood, first reported with a tweet from ProPublica's Robert Faturechi.
Faturechi said that information came from a leaked communication to top law enforcement officials.
An Indiana man named James Wesley Howell, 20, was arrested after police found assault weapons and bomb making materials in his car, according to the Associated Press.
Howell told police that he wanted to "harm" the L.A. Pride festival, according to a tweet from Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.
The arrest came after Santa Monica police responded early Sunday morning to a report of a prowler.
Police questioned Howell at the scene, who said he was waiting for a friend. Police searched his car and found assault weapons and materials that could be used to make a pipe bomb, according to the Associated Press. The man said that he was on his way to L.A. Pride in West Hollywood.
Officials have beefed up security at L.A. Pride, a West Hollywood official told the Los Angeles Times.
The reported arrest took place only hours after the attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., now called the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
In Florida, a gunman identified as Omar Mateen reportedly went to Pulse nightclub in Orlando at about 2 a.m. The shooting resulted in 50 deaths and at least 53 injured. Mateen was reportedly shot and killed by SWAT officers.
