Armed man arrested en

route to LA gay pride event

is charged
James Howell is shown in this booking photo from the Santa Monica Police
Department.PHOTO: REUTERS
PUBLISHED
JUN 15, 2016, 3:28 AM SGT

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - A 20-year-old Indiana man who was

arrested on his way to a Los Angeles-area gay pride parade after police
said they found guns and bomb-making chemicals in his car was
charged on Tuesday with unlawful possession of an assault weapon
and explosives.
James Wesley Howell was taken into custody early on Sunday
morning in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica and police
officials say he told arresting officers that he planned to attend the
pride event in nearby West Hollywood.
Authorities have since said there was no apparent link to the deadly
mass shooting hours earlier at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida,
where a gunman killed 49 people..
Howell was taken into custody shortly after 5am on Sunday after
officers responding to reports of a man knocking on a window found
him sitting in his white Acura with three assault rifles and highcapacity magazines, according to the Santa Monica Police
Department.
Also found in the car was a 19-litre bucket with chemicals that could
be used to make an improvised explosive device.
Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks initially said on
Twitter that Howell told officers he wanted to harm the gay pride
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festival. But Seabrooks later called that information inaccurate and

that Howell had only told officers he planned to attend the event.
The suspect did make an initial statement to the effect that he was
going to go to the pride festival, the departments Lieutenant Saul
Rodriguez told reporters on Sunday.
Beyond that he did not make any additional statement saying that he
was going to do anything further than that. We do not have any
additional information related to what his intentions were, Rodriguez
said.
In charging Howell with the weapons charges, three felonies and one
misdemeanor, Los Angeles prosecutors made no comment on what
they believed his plans might have been.
He was scheduled for an initial court appearance later on Tuesday and
prosecutors said they would ask that he be held on US$2 million
(S$2.7 million) bail.
An FBI spokesman said that agents had executed a search warrant at
Howells residence in Clark County, Indiana, on Monday evening as
part of a joint investigation with local authorities. The FBI did not say
what it found in that search.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Howell was charged in
Indiana in October 2015 with pointing a loaded firearm at an exboyfriend and that he had pleaded guilty in April to misdemeanor
intimidation.

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