Boston Police May Have Prevented a Massacre at the Pokemon World Championships

[Badnik Mechanic]

So this is a developing story.

It turns out that the Boston City Police Department may have prevented a massacre at the Pokemon World Championships, it turns out that two attendees of the event were boasting/making threats of violence on social media towards attendees of the event. When notified police arrested the men and searched their car, in which they found a number of firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5086f19ce4b0ad16ff15598d/t/55da1f27e4b0dfd79803d6e9/1440358192266/

Well the internet also got involved in the investigation and it turns out that the guys are registered on the official website as people who are to play at the event and one of them is even in a random youtube video.

One of the suspects is James Stumbo...

More details.

Stumbo wasn’t shy about his arsenal or his alleged target. Stumbo posted a photo of the car and guns in a Facebook group entitled “Mayhem Pokemon Crew.” The caption read:

“Kevin Norton and I are ready for Worlds Boston here we come!!!”

“Good luck!” wrote a Facebook user named Joey Faux.

“With killing the competition?” asked Norton.

“Haha yes,” replied Faux.

Stumbo and Norton were both invited to play in the U.S. masters division in Boston this weekend, according to the Pokemon World Championship website.

On Thursday, security at the Hynes Convention Center where the Pokemon championship was being held detained Stumbo when he tried to enter. (It’s unclear why.) While security was escorting Stumbo out of the building, they noticed Norton trying to enter, according to the police report. Stumbo and Norton were both slapped with a “No Trespass Order.”

Hynes Convention security called the Boston Police Department, which radioed two officers to look into Norton and Stumbo. The “officers were informed” of Stumbo’s post on Facebook, according to the police report. When Stumbo was questioned, he claimed the post was taken out of context. However, Norton told police where their car was parked and that it had weapons inside. Norton said the shotgun was his but the AR-15 was Stumbo’s. Neither man produced a permit to carry firearms.

Police obtained a warrant on Friday and on Saturday, the two were arrested at a motel in nearby Saugus, Massachusetts with assistance from the Saugus police. On Monday, the two men will be arraigned at Boston Municipal Court.

There are even a number of youtube videos of these dudes doing the rounds.  

[PaddyFancy]

Well they certainly made it very easy for some people to catch on that they were up to no good.

[Captain Fun]

To protect the world from devastation...

[Failinhearts]

Good job, Boston Police!

Thank goodness for those two men's stupidity to make violent threats online! If they didn't, it might already be too late.

[CottonCandy]

Oh my god. It's a good thing the police were able to prevent it. 

[Tatters]

That's scary. Well at least the Police did their job and caught those men. 

[ElectricAngel]

I'm not too surprised, seeing as it is Boston. And well, you hear tons of stuff like this happen there. And basically all over America. Unless the news is lying. I dunno. I don't live there, but it sounds scary. What mostly surprises me is the fact that it was going to happen at a Pokemon Championship. Like, really? What kind of sick mind wants to go up and murder kids just for playing a game? And from what it sounds like, they were doing it for fun?? Either way, at least they got arrested. Their stupidity got them caught. Seriously, who brags about this stuff online? 

Thank goodness no one was harmed though. Can't imagine what would happen if they actually got in and went through with their plan. 

[Dr. Mechano]

If only every would-be mass murderer publicly announced their plans ahead of time like this.

Glad they got caught. Hopefully they'll be locked away for a long time.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

To protect the world from devastation...

To unite all people within our nation...

To denounce the evils of a massacre...

To avoid weapons of high caliber...

Team Boston blast off at the speed of light...

Surrender now, or remain silent as your right...

 

...I had to do it.

Seriously, them being stupid to gloat about it online was the best thing to happen, because we almost had another Charleston Shooting with more people.

[KHCast]

Just like Team Rocket, these guys are idiots. Too bad these guys didn't have their plans ruined by an 11 year old.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

They remind me of Team Rocket: You fool the good guys, blow your cover and announce your plan, and then get utterly destroyed by the good guys.

Glad that the police stopped them, if their plan actually succeeded, it could had been a really large massacre.

[sonicgirl313]

Well I can chalk that up on the list of dumb things criminals do. And I thought a guy who's trying to rob a store that simply just shoves a guy to the side before trying to threaten the cashier without even thinking that obviously the guy he shoved to the side would of course attack him was stupid. Well guess this is way my mom told me when I was younger to always be careful of what you say on the internet, because of idiots like those two.

[ThePrinceOfSaiyans]

Welp, that's certainly fucked up. Thank Arceus no one was hurt. 

[MightyRay]

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for these two nasty pieces of work for being so brazen enough to allowing themselves to get caught.

[YoshiAngemon]

I'm just glad I'm not skilled enough to even qualify. I would've attended for only the merchandise. You know, for stuff you can easily buy on either eBay or on the store's website. Maybe, next year, the 20th Anniversary Event might end up heavily guarded more than the event from yesterday.

Edited August 24, 2015 by YoshiAngemon

[Johnny Boy]

Just like Team Rocket, these guys are idiots. Too bad these guys didn't have their plans ruined by an 10 year old.

Fixed it for you.

But in all seriousness though, it's a miracle these morons were dumb enough to blab about what they were gonna do on social media. I hope they never see the light of day again.

[Tori Himemiya]

Wow I'm glad that this didn't ended violently.

I can never understand why these people would go and attempt to do these sort of things.

[Tani Coyote]

Norton was super quick in cooperating it sounds like, so he'll probably get a reduced sentence regardless of intent.

 

I must say though. These guys are idiots. Even if they weren't planning anything, this would be a stupid thing to post in the current American situation. It's no different than joking about bombs at an airport.

 

I know it looks bad, but I'm still willing to give the benefit of the doubt until a court of law puts together evidence that they were planning something deadly. Even in today's terrorism-riddled America, there's no shortage of idiots who don't know that there are inappropriate things to say and do.

 

If they were, well thank God they're so dumb as to post about it so far ahead in advance.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Ty the Tasmanian Ogilvie

[Red]

I'm really glad they were caught before anyone was hurt. I actually know a few people at Worlds currently, so I'm glad police have prevented anything bad from happening.

[Tani Coyote]

Let's see here.

 

The 18-year old is the one who made the social media post. That probably explains a lot of the lack of tact. Not to be ageist, but let's be frank here, younger people as a whole are more prone to being reckless.

 

Based on all the people who break down crying when they're sentenced to prison for SWATing, a lot of people greatly underestimate the severity of law. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought nothing would happen to him.

 

Of course, that gives me a morbid idea... I can't help but wonder if the kid is just dumb, and the 27-year old was actually planning something.

 

I'd say the biggest red flag here is that the firearms aren't legally owned. It'd be easy to pass them off as gun enthusiasts (lord knows my Dad has a ton and dreams of carting them around), but not having licensed weapons makes you look very suspect.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Ty the Tasmanian Ogilvie

[Salamander]

...I get the feeling that this might just have been a joke in very, very poor taste, but it's impossible to rule out the alternative.  When did real life become so much like fiction?

[Shade Vortex]

...I get the feeling that this might just have been a joke in very, very poor taste, but it's impossible to rule out the alternative.  When did real life become so much like fiction?

Who takes a joke far enough to have unlawful ownership of guns in the trunk of their car near the event, complete with tons of ammo? To say "Oh, it was a joke!" seems a little bit silly considering how far they took it.

[Tani Coyote]

I really am interested to see how this all pans out.

 

For one, I find it odd that if they were planning a mass shooting, there'd be such a huge gap in the age. One's barely out of high school while one is post-doctorate age. It makes me ponder exactly what their relationship is. It looks like they're unrelated barring being invited to the tournament. I can't help but feel Stumbo wanted to take Norton on as an accomplice and that hoisted him by his own petard.

 

Actually, I'm looking at the article again. They had been detained for unrelated reasons prior to entry. The post was only discovered upon looking into them, and the guns after that. Had they not set off security in some manner, the post wouldn't even be known.

 

These guys have to be among the dumbest criminals I've seen.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Ty the Tasmanian Ogilvie

[Salamander]

Who takes a joke far enough to have unlawful ownership of guns in the trunk of their car near the event, complete with tons of ammo? To say "Oh, it was a joke!" seems a little bit silly considering how far they took it.

I'm picturing a situation in which the guns' owner (presumably the older gentleman) already carts them around everywhere because he's a lunatic, and the other guy made a stupid crack about it because this time they happened to be going to a Pokemon tournament.  In this version of events, everyone is still incompetent, but not necessarily a potential mass murderer.

[Tani Coyote]

Unfortunately for them, that won't be the case, since neither has a permit and each one claimed to own the guns in the trunk.

 

"Oh shit, I forgot my permit, sorry!" Did you forget your driver license as well? How dumb would you need to be to not think you should probably carry gun paperwork with you if you're carrying them around?

 

If they were smart they would have passed the guns off as someone else's. But they claimed ownership without legal documentation. That's just stupid.