Authorities said Tuesday that a man from Michigan had confessed to organizing a mass shooting at the offices of a local political party and a club in the area because he connected both places to homosexuals.
In Owosso, which is roughly 25 miles west of Flint, Mack Davis, 22, entered a guilty plea to one count of committing a hate crime by trying to carry out the mass murders. According to a news release from the Department of Justice, he could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke stated in a statement attached to the release that such cruel and despicable hate-fueled violence, which targets innocent people based on their sexual orientation, is incompatible with our beliefs as Americans. The LGBTQI+ community will not be the target of crimes motivated by bias. The Justice Department will continue to prosecute anyone who commit or attempt to commit hate-fueled violence, using all available tools to shield communities from this evil.
Between July of last year and June, when he was detained on an unrelated allegation, officials claimed Davis researched and wrote about dozens of mass killers in notebooks, on various items in his home, and on social media. According to officials, throughout those 11 months, Davis made a list of the weapons he already had and planned to buy in order to commit his own mass murder. According to officials, by June, he had accumulated an arsenal that comprised two guns, magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow and arrows, various components for constructing bombs, smoke grenades, tactical equipment, and multiple knives. According to police, one of his blades bore the anti-gay insult F—– Killer.
According to the DOJ statement, Davis wrote on social media between April and June about shooting at a local political party headquarters, claiming, in an anti-gay slur, that it was full of far-left liberal f——- scum, as well as a neighboring club that he had called an f—– bar. Officials did not say whether the local bar is a gay bar or which political party the headquarters belongs to.
In June, Davis apparently destroyed another automobile and spray-painted the word “fag” on the vehicle of a neighbor he allegedly knew to be gay, according to officials. According to police, Davis test-fired one of his guns a few days later, firing around 60 rounds at a number of his neighbors’ homes, including one of the cars he had previously damaged.
Following the shooting, he was taken into jail by the police, and he has been there since June. At a later, undisclosed date, he will be jailed for orchestrating the abortive attempt, the announcement said.
Davis was chilled with his preparations. According to a statement from Dawn N. Ison, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, he planned to carry out mass shootings at two different locations, taking many lives and damaging our community because of his fervent hatred for LGBT people. I commend law enforcement for thwarting this heinous plot and apprehending Davis before he could execute his prearranged assaults.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by Bryan Sherer, Davis’ lawyer.
In the last ten years, LGBT clubs have been the scene of at least two high-profile mass shootings.
49 people were killed and numerous others were injured when a shooter opened fire on Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016. The 29-year-old male shooter was shot and killed by police at the scene of the attack the same day.
A similar attack occurred at Club Q, a nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2020, leaving five people dead and seventeen injured. Last year, the 24-year-old gunman entered a guilty plea and received a life sentence. According to two lawsuits filed last month, officials may have avoided the Colorado shooting if they had followed the state’s red flag legislation.
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