An Arizona man who planned to commit a racially motivated mass shooting at a Bad Bunny concert was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday.
Mark Adams Prieto was charged with gun trafficking and unregistered possession, as well as transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime after he outlined his plans to FBI informants he met at a gun show.
“Prieto had discussions with two individuals working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to devise a plan to commit a mass shooting of African Americans and other minorities to incite a race war prior to the 2024 United States Presidential Election,” a press release from the Department of Justice read.
The DOJ described Prieto’s plan to attack concertgoers at Bad Bunny’s May 14th and 15th concerts in Atlanta, GA., and said that officers apprehended him on May 14 along Interstate 40, which runs between Arizona and Atlanta.
The indictment alleges that he began espousing “suspicious and alarming comments, including advocating for a mass shooting, and specifically targeting ‘Blacks, Jews, or Muslims’” to the informants before asking one if they were “ready to kill a bunch of people.”
Prieto told informants to shout racist messages including “whities out here killing” and “KKK all the way” during the shooting and added that they should carry out plans ahead of the election. He said of planned victims that “these people don’t belong here in this country anyway,” echoing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric of an “invasion” of Hispanic immigrants.
The foiled plot comes as white supremacist terrorism trends upward, with the National Institute of Justice reporting that 227 incidents of far-right and racially-motivated extremism have killed more than 520 people since 1990. A report from the Anti-Defamation League noted that the two-year window between 2020 and 2022, with 40 right-wing terror incidents, was the most active in at least three decades.
Fears are further compounded as mainstream political figures move to legitimize racial violence. Criticism poured in last month after Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardoned a man who was convicted of murder after sending messages promising anti-Black violence.
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