An Arizona man planned a mass shooting targeting black concertgoers at concerts in Atlanta in an attempt to spark a “race war” ahead of the US presidential election in November, federal prosecutors said.
Mark Adams Prieto, a 58-year-old gun salesman, intended for the violence to unfold at a “rap concert” at State Farm Arena on May 14 and 15, court documents state.
The venue’s calendar features Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Rabbit was the only artist scheduled for these dates.
Prieto’s plan failed because he did not know that the two people he discussed the matter with between January and May worked for the FBI, according to prosecutors.
Prieto, who is white, revealed the details of his plot — including how he said “he planned to leave Confederate flags after the shooting” — with both individuals at gun shows in Arizona, an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit. in support of a criminal complaint.
He was mistaken in believing that “they shared his racist beliefs,” prosecutors said.
Prieto, of Prescott, was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 11 on charges of firearms trafficking, transferring a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced from the US to the District of Arizona in a new release.
Information about his legal representation was not immediately available.
‘Suspicious and alarming comments’
Prieto came onto the FBI’s radar in October when one of the people working with the agency reported to the FBI’s Phoenix office that Prieto “expressed a desire to incite a race war” before the election, the affidavit says.
Over the past three years, this individual chatted a bit with Prieto at various gun shows, according to the affidavit.
“Last year,” the person told the FBI, Prieto “began making suspicious and alarming comments, including advocating a mass shooting and specifically targeting ‘blacks, Jews, or Muslims,’” the affidavit says.
They said Prieto was convinced that martial law would be enforced after the election “and that a mass shooting should occur prior to the implementation of martial law,” the FBI agent wrote in the affidavit.
Why Atlanta?
At a gun show in Phoenix on Jan. 20, Prieto chatted briefly with this individual and an undercover FBI agent, the affidavit says.
On Jan. 21, the second day of the gun show, Prieto revealed he wanted to carry out a mass shooting of black people at a rap concert in Atlanta, according to testimony.
The statement says Prieto told them:
“The reason I say Atlanta. Why, why is Georgia such a (expletive) state now? When I was growing up, it was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why not now? Because as crime got worse in Los Angeles and St. Louis and all these other cities, all the (racial slurs) moved out of those (places) and moved to Atlanta.”
On Feb. 24, at a gun show in Phoenix, Prieto told two people working with the FBI that he wanted to cause “panic” and “pandemonium” at the show, and for spectators to be trapped during the shooting, according to the affidavit. .
The next day, he sold one of them an “AK-style” rifle and later sold them an “AR-style” rifle on March 24, prosecutors said.
On March 23, Prieto had a vendor table with nine firearms at a gun show in Prescott, where he confirmed he wanted the mass shooting to happen on May 14 and 15, according to the affidavit.
He then proposed pushing back the date of the attack to June or July, saying “The hotter the weather, the better, because people will want to be outdoors more. When it gets hot, people can’t think straight,” the statement reads.
Arrest made
Prieto was under constant FBI surveillance as he developed his plan, according to prosecutors.
After leaving Arizona, he was arrested in New Mexico while heading east on Interstate 40 on May 14, prosecutors said.
Inside his car, authorities found seven firearms and located additional weapons in his home, “including an unregistered short-barreled rifle,” according to prosecutors.
If convicted of firearms trafficking, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. If Prieto is convicted of transferring a firearm for use in a hate crime, the charge would carry the same maximum penalties.
For the charge of possession of an unregistered firearm, Prieto could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000 if convicted, according to prosecutors.
Prieto was ordered detained before trial because “the nature and severity of the danger to the community is extreme,” court records show.
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