Coleman Blevins, a 28-year-old Texas man has been arrested for planning a mass shooting at Walmart, police said on Sunday.
Blevins was arrested on Friday in Kerrville, about 70 miles northwest of San Antonio, after investigators intercepted a message indicating he planned to carry out a mass shooting with a specific threat that included Walmart, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Investigators from the sheriff's office made contact with Blevins and confirmed "his affiliation and networking with extremist ideologies" and determined he was capable of "following through with the threat" so they "moved immediately to arrest him," the statement further read.
Weapons, White Supremacist Books, Neo-Nazi Flags Found at Blevins' Home
The FBI, representatives of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Kerrville Police Department, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service conducted a search at Blevins' home and discovered firearms, ammunition, and radical paraphernalia, including books and flags that promoted white supremacy and other extremist ideologies.
KCSO posted a photo of the items recovered from Blevins' home. The flags seen in the image, include a Neo-Nazi astany black sun flag sonnenrad banner, a confederate flag, the flag of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Falange Flag, a symbol of the fascist Falangist party of Spanish General Francisco Franco, as pointed out by Heavy. Another flag on the table is the calvary cross version of the Russian Christian Orthodox symbol.
Alongside a rifle, handgun ammunition, a laptop and a T-shirt with an image of a syringe, several books can be seen laid out on the table, including a copy of the Quran and the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries. The 1978 novel, authored by William Luther Pierce, is about a violent attack by white supremacists on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government. The "racist" book was pulled by Amazon days after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6.
Also on the table are copies of Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Harassment Architecture by Mike Ma as well as an unidentified red book. Extemist researcher Marc-André Argentino, of Concordia University in Montreal, also tweeted about the photo.
Blevins to Face Federal Charges
Blevins was on an active felony probation and was prohibited from possessing firearms. He already has three drug convictions on his record and was arrested on a warrant charging him with making a terroristic threat to create public fear of serious bodily injury. According to Texas state law, the charge is a third-degree felony. The charge carries a potential sentence of 2 to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. He is currently being held on $250,000 bail at the Kerr County Jail.
"The FBI or other federal authorities may seek federal charges in this case. As with all criminal cases, charges may be added or modified prior to trial. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty," the sheriff's office said.
