Police have arrested four people in connection with a potential plot to conduct a mass shooting during Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in Denver after a maid found “a bunch of guns laid out” in a hotel room on Friday.
The firearms discovery was made in a room near Coors Field ahead of Tuesday’s All-Star Game, as authorities said they feared another “Las Vegas-style” shooting was being planned, reports said. The game was relocated to Denver from Atlanta earlier this year after Georgia lawmakers passed and Gov. Brian Kemp signed voter integrity legislation the MLB disagreed with.
That said, Fox 31 reported that police have no evidence to indicate that a mass shooting event was set to take place. Still, according to the Denver Post, police were concerned that another shooting similar to the massacre in Las Vegas in the fall of 2017 that left 58 people dead who were attending a concert near a hotel in Vegas, and hundreds more hurt or wounded.
A few days ago, reports said, Chicago police encountered a similar situation.
Denver police said investigators found and removed 16 long guns from the hotel room including 1,000 rounds of ammunition and body armor, according to the Post.
Fox 31 reported that the maid’s discovery at the Maven Hotel triggered an overwhelming police response that included a SWAT team.
The following day, Saturday, police said four people — three men and a woman — had been arrested. The male suspects were identified as Richard Platt, 42; Gabriel Rodriguez, 48; and Ricardo Rodriguez, 44. Fox 31 said all of them were arrested as part of an investigation into charges of possession of a weapon by a previous offender.
The woman has been identified as Kanoelehua Serikawa, 43, who is under investigation for allegedly possessing a dangerous controlled substance with an intent to distribute. Two of the other men were also being investigated for possible drug-related violations, according to Fox 31.
One of the men recently posted to Facebook that he had gotten divorced and sought to “go out in a big way,” the Post reported, citing sources the paper spoke with.
Drake Voell, a guest at the hotel, told Fox 31 he got a phone call along with the other guests ordering them to remain in their rooms as officers conducted an investigation into the gun report.
“I asked what was going on and they said there was just a few people that were up to no good on the fourth and the eighth floor,” Voell told the local outlet, adding that they were told a maid had found several firearms and proceeded to inform authorities.
Denver police told reporters that officers searched both rooms and impounded a pair of vehicles after authorities arrived on-scene, reports noted. It isn’t clear if officers arrested the four suspects at the hotel or if they detained them later at a different location.
Last week, police in Chicago also believed that a “Las Vegas-style” shooting was in the works after a suspect armed with a rifle was seen in a room overlooking a fireworks event taking place in the city. Not long afterward, police arrested a 32-year-old man from Iowa in connection with the brandishing.
On Oct. 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock, 64, fired down into a crowd attending an outdoor concert at the Route 91 Harvest festival along Highway 91 from the 32nd-floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. By the time officers got to the room, Paddock had already killed himself.
“More than 100 investigators have spent the last 72 hours combing through the life of 64-year-old Stephen Paddock to produce a profile of someone I will call disturbed and dangerous,” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters a few days after the shootings.
“What we know is that Stephen Paddock is a man who spent decades acquiring weapons and ammo and living a secret life, much of which will never be fully understood. He meticulously planned the worst domestic attack in United States history,” he added.
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Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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