Mark Adams Prieto was charged with firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm. He wanted to start a "race war" by killing as many black Americans as he could, but was foiled. Janelle Griffith, writing for MSNBC:
The investigation into Prieto, 58, of Prescott, began in October, after a confidential source reported to FBI Phoenix that an individual, later identified as Prieto, had expressed a desire to incite a race war prior to the presidential election, the arrest affidavit states. The source told authorities that they had spoken to Prieto more than 15 times over three years at various gun shows. The chats grew from small talk to include political conversations, the affidavit says. Within the last year, the source told authorities that Prieto began making suspicious and alarming comments, including "advocating for a mass shooting," and specifically targeting Blacks, Jews or Muslims, the affidavit says.
The FBI put him under surveillance after he was turned in and found exactly the man described to them.
According to the affidavit, Prieto said: "The reason I say Atlanta. Why, why is Georgia such a f——up state now? When I was a kid that was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why is it not now? Because as the crime got worse in L.A., St. Louis, and all these other cities, all the [N-words] moved out of those [places] and moved to Atlanta. That's why it isn't so great anymore. And they've been there for a couple, several years." He also said that he wanted to target a rap concert because there would be a high concentration of African Americans there and he planned to leave confederate flags after the shooting to send a message that "we're going to fight back now, and every whitey will be the enemy across the whole country," and to shout "whities out here killing, what's we gonna do" and "KKK all the way," the affidavit says. Prieto said he wanted to show "no mercy, no quarter."
Praising the Klan while thinking that all the black people moved to Atlanta from L.A. in the last few years is a great example of why there is no possibility at all of reasoning or negotiating with or moderating these guys.
