Volusia County Sheriff's Office
A Florida man was arrested when he sent a text message to his ex-girlfriend that apparently said “100 kills would be nice” when speaking of committing a mass shooting.
Tristan Scott Wix, 25, of Daytona Beach, Florida, was charged with “making a threat to commit a mass shooting” after his ex was apparently worried enough about the texts to share them with police.
Officers are still working on obtaining a search warrant for the man’s house, but he officially does not hold a permit to own a weapon.
In a series of texts, Wix said that a school was a “weak target”, and that if he were to commit a mass shooting he would prefer a highly populated shopping center.
His goal was to break the record for the “longest confirmed kill” ever. In another message, Wix said that he wanted at least one other person to help him commit this, perhaps because he had no guns at his disposal.
Several Florida police departments worked together to arrest Wix, who was eventually found in a Winn-Dixie parking lot on Friday. He is being held in the county jail without bond while investigators look deeper into the issue.
Wix openly admitted to being fascinated by mass shootings, and said that he wanted to die but hoped he “had fun” while doing it.
If this horrifies you, you’re not alone – but Wix isn’t the only person to be arrested recently.
In Youngstown, Ohio, 20-year-old James Patrick Reardon was arrested on a count of telecommunications harassment and a count of aggravated menacing. Reardon posted a video on his Instagram page tagging a local Jewish community center, in which he was shooting a semi-automatic rifle and identified himself as a white nationalist.
When police searched his home they found “a cache” of guns, dozens of rounds of ammunition, a gas mask and bulletproof armor.
Reardon also appeared in the 2017 documentary about the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He identifies himself as a “white nationalist” shunning the term “neo-nazi”.
Just a month before two mass shootings happened in 24 hours, a grandmother saved the day. When her grandson, William Patrick Williams, from Texas, shared with his grandmother that he purchased an AK-47 and planned to “shoot up” a hotel, she sprang to action.
This grandmother convinced Williams to instead go to a hospital, where he was arrested after treatment. They found an AK-47, as well as seventeen magazines loaded with ammunition, tactical gear, and even knives.
