A PLOT TO KILL AT LAS VEGAS CASINO
United States – A man from Ohio has been arrested by federal authorities in the U.S after threatening to kill his wife and stage a ‘historic’ mass shooting at a Las Vegas casino, and church along the strip. The Cuyahoga Falls man, Wei Li, sent a series of text messages threatening his estranged wife based in Las Vegas. Li is facing charges of interstate threatening communications and destruction of evidence.
LI’s LAS VEGAS CASINO AND CHURCH MASS SHOOTING PLOT
On Thursday, U.S authorities publicly announced the arrest of Li, who planned to commit a mass shooting which he said would “go down in [Las Vegas] history”. The 28-year-old targeted a Las Vegas casino where his wife worked at the time of the texts, and a church she attended with at least 1000 attendees.
Li said in a string of texts, dating 6 November: “There are 1,000 people in our church. I will make the biggest in history”. Prior to the text messages, Li visited the casino and later on bragged to his wife on how freely he roamed around the casino and hotel with no security or police officer stopping him. “No one checked me,” he said.
According to court records, the wife responded to some of the texts in the profanity-laden conversation saying: “You are too cruel” and “Are you sick?”. But, that did not stop Li from sending threats. He allegedly then sent her pictures of himself holding a riffle and knives, saying “you made me do this”, and said she would be to blame for the mass shooting fatalities.
MASS SHOOTING PLANS A REAL THREAT OR A JOKE?
On November 10, detectives at the Cuyahoga Falls Police and FBI agents took Li in for a joint interview. According to their report, Li was asked to unlock his phone, of which he complied, but then allegedly quickly deleted a thread of messages. When questioned, Li said the text messages about the mass shooting were “bad” and he also claimed he was just playing around.
Court records say investigators found two knives at Li’s home, sitting next to the mobile phone he used to send messages. No riffles were found. Li said he did not own any guns after the riffle he had in 2014 was stolen.
If found guilty, Li faces more than 20 years in prison on charges of transmitting interstate threatening communications.
LAS VEGAS CASINOS ON HIGH ALERT
Las Vegas casino remain high on alert after last month’s mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay by gunman Stephen Paddock. The incident claimed the lives of 58 people and hundreds were injured. Since then, casinos on the strip have tightened their security and adjusted their ‘do not disturb’ policies.
Moreover, the criminal complaint on Li’s case does not make any reference of the casino or the name of the church the suspect planned to attack.
