Federal law enforcement took swift action Tuesday after a credible source provided a tip about a potential racially motivated massacre at an upcoming Atlanta Bad Bunny concert-A terrifying plot to cause chaos in Atlanta with a Bad Bunny concert massacre has been stopped before it could happen. The move came five weeks after Mark Adams Prieto, 58, was arrested in Arizona and accused of planning a mass shooting to spark race riots days before the presidential election.
Prieto contacted a person he thought would be amenable to doing the dirty work, prosecutors stated in an indictment made public this week. Fortunately, this possible co-conspirator turned materiel and told the FBI. Federal agents with the clock ticking moved in and caught Prieto last month before he could follow through on his nightmarish plan.
A chilling reminder of the specter of terror, hate and political extremism that always lurks. A cold reflection of a tragic history, a terror of what once was. But it also exposes the tireless vigilance of our communities and the results possible when law enforcement are used in tandem with better judgement. A potential bloodbath was stopped in its tracks, in part because the source in question came forward with information.
Entry of firearms into his terror: the indictment lays out how Prieto spent months laying the groundwork for his attack, buying a small arsenal of firearms at gun shows all over Arizona.
Investigators said he had set his sights on a Bad Bunny concert at an Atlanta-area venue playing the weekend of May 14 and 15, hoping to choose an escape show where many of the people in the audience especially when Latino would have been a higher number of fatalities. Fortunately, the show went on unscathed, each note and banter as effortless as they were always intended to be, the malevolence transpiring beneath the surface being completely overlooked.
The probe into what Prieto was doing is still ongoing. Among the charges against Hasson: firearms trafficking; attempted use of a firearm to commit a hate crime; and possession of an unregistered firearm when he purchased a 9MM Hi-Point carbine-style semiautomatic rifle. Facing charges for sending 26 illegal text messages, he could spend many years in jail if found guilty.
