Two attendees of the Pokemon World Championships in Boston — Kevin Norton, 18, and James Austin Stumbo, 27 — were arrested today on several weapons charges after the authorities were alerted that the two were making violent threats toward other tournament players over social media.
CNN reports that the two men, both from Iowa, were stopped before they could enter the event on Thursday, and found with firearms in the vehicle. Norton and Stumbo were asked to produce their licenses to carry, but neither had one. The next day, detectives executed a search warrant and found a 12-gauge shotgun, an AR-15 rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a hunting knife.
An investigation into the duo is ongoing. Superintendent Paul Fitzgerald of the Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis said, "The [Boston Police Department] detectives did a great job in the stop and prevention of a potential tragedy."
Authorities at the Boston Regional Intelligence Center were tipped off that Norton and Stumbo had made threats on social media toward other players at the World Championships. According to screenshots shared by Heavy.com, Stumbo and Norton talked about "killing the competition" when Stumbo uploaded this photo of two guns on the trunk of his car on Facebook.
One Twitter user also shared screenshots from last July of Norton and Stumbo talking about spending their stipend money from Pokemon Organized Playing on "strippers and blow." In a comments thread, Norton said, "Thank you Pokemon for my new assault rifle."
James Stumbo a parlé de son projet de fusillade y'a 1 mois. Il a acheté son arme avec l'argent versé par TPCi #Boston pic.twitter.com/YSJeTUL7PD
