A San Antonio man who investigators say sympathizes with incel — or involuntary celibate — ideology was arrested on costs of threatening a conservative pupil convention and having youngster pornography on his cellphone, in keeping with a federal felony grievance.
The person, Alejandro Richard Velasquez Gomez, 19, wrote in a July 18 Instagram put up that July 22 — the start of a three-day Turning Level USA convention in Tampa, Fla. — could be “the day of retribution,” in keeping with a federal felony grievance filed in america District Courtroom for the Western District of Texas on Aug. 11.
Mr. Velasquez, who glided by the identify LatinoZoomer on Instagram, described that day as when “I’ll have revenge towards all of humanity, which all of you’ll pay for my struggling. SAS would be the turning level of the LatinoZoomer lore,” in keeping with the felony grievance.
Investigators mentioned “SAS” was a reference to Turning Level USA’s Scholar Motion Summit, which this 12 months featured remarks by former President Donald J. Trump and several other different stars of right-wing politics.
The felony grievance didn’t clarify why Mr. Velasquez was focusing on Turning Level USA, a bunch based in 2012 to advertise activism amongst younger conservatives that’s identified for its Professor Watchlist venture, which units out to “expose and doc” what it describes as “leftist propaganda within the classroom.”
The group didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Saturday. A public defender for Mr. Velasquez, Molly Roth, didn’t instantly return cellphone and electronic mail messages late Saturday.
Investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation mentioned that the put up by Mr. Velasquez, which included a picture of him sitting in a automotive, echoed a video by Elliot Rodger, whom they described as a central determine of the incel motion and who in Might 2014 killed six individuals in a rampage in Isla Vista, Calif., earlier than fatally capturing himself.
Mr. Rodger, who was a pupil at Santa Barbara Metropolis Faculty, posted a video to YouTube the day earlier than that assault wherein he spoke of the ladies who rejected him and life as a 22-year-old virgin. He mentioned, “Tomorrow is the day of retribution. The day I’ll have my retribution towards humanity. In opposition to all of you.”
Federal investigators wrote within the grievance that incel ideology “has an excessive hatred in direction of, and endorses violence towards, girls and sexually energetic individuals.”
In accordance with the grievance, which was reported by the San Antonio Express-News, customers who noticed Mr. Velasquez’s July 18 put up took it critically, with one commenting that the F.B.I. had been contacted. Investigators additionally discovered that Mr. Velasquez had booked a flight to Tampa from Austin, Texas, on July 22, although the flight had been canceled the evening earlier than, the grievance mentioned.
Federal investigators mentioned the Tampa Police Division obtained a search warrant for Mr. Velasquez on July 21 and charged him with sending written or digital threats to kill, injure or conduct a mass capturing or an act of terrorism, a second-degree felony.
In accordance with the grievance, the native authorities arrested Mr. Velasquez on July 22 whereas the F.B.I. executed a search warrant and seized his cellphone, on which they discovered photos of kid pornography.