A recent high school graduate from Texas is in custody after allegedly threatening to attack a conservative convention in Florida in July and for allegedly possessing sexually explicit images of children.
Alejandro Richard Velasquez Gomez, 19, is in custody after being arrested and charged with making threatening interstate communications and possession of child pornography.
According to the probable cause affidavit in support of his arrest, Velasquez, who apparently graduated from high school in May, took to Instagram on July 18 to announce his plan to take ârevenge against all of humanityâ by attacking the Turning Point USA conference scheduled for July 22-24.
âJuly 22 is the day of retribution the day I will have revenge against all of humanity which all of you will pay for my suffering,â Velasquez allegedly wrote, using the online handle âLatinoZoomer.â
âSAS will be the turning point of the LatinoZoomer lore,â Velasquez reportedly continued, adding a green gun emoji symbolizing a âwater pistolâ followed by three emojis depicting a face with steam coming out of its nose.
âSASâ stands for Student Action Summit, an activist outfit affiliated with the pro-
Donald Trump group Turning Point USA. The groupâs 2022 convention was held in Tampa, Florida.
Velasquez had also posted a picture of himself holding a name tag from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It is unclear when Valesquez allegedly posted that picture, but it appears to have included a reference to a July 2021
report about white nationalist Nick Fuentes being removed from a Dallas CPAC event in July 2021.
â[T]ry kicking me out n***a,â Velasquez appears to have posted, according to the complaint.
Velasquez was flagged to the FBI by another Instagram user. The affidavit says that the Tampa Police Department was aware of Velasquezâs July 28 Instagram post and âbelieved the post to be a credible threatâ against the SAS conference. Turning Point USA was also reportedly aware of his planned attendance, and the FBIâs investigation revealed that Velasquez has purchased a plane ticket to fly from Austin to Tampa on July 2 â although he had apparently cancelled his ticket the night before the flight.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Velasquezâs alleged comments sounded familiar.
âBased on my training and experience, I know the wording in this post is similar to the message left by âincelâ mass shooter,
Elliot Rodger, who filmed a video from inside his car discussing his âday of retributionâ before he killed six people,â the affidavit said.
Rodger, then 22, shot and killed three people in May 2014 in the college community of Isla Vista in Santa Barbara, California, after stabbing three of his friends to death inside his apartment. He injured more than a dozen other people.
âTomorrow is the day of retribution,â Rodger had said in a video. âThe day in which I will have my revenge against humanity. Against all of you.â
As the affidavit for Velasquez noted, âincelâ refers to âInvoluntary Celibateâ ideology, which the affidavit describes as having âan extreme hatred towards, and endorses violence against, women and sexually active people.â
The affidavit also notes that the similarities were not a coincidence.
âWhile executing the search warrant for his phone Velasquez told me that he had posted the âday of retributionâ message and that he had taken that photo in that Instagram post,â the affidavit says. âHe explained to me that he intended the post to evoke Elliot Rodger and was familiar with Elliot Rodger due to extensive online research.â
The images of child sexual abuse were allegedly discovered during the FBIâs search of Velasquezâs phone.
âOn August 3, I located a screenshot of three images posted on an unidentified social media platform stored on his cell phone,â the complaint says. âThe three images within the screenshot appeared to be minors, nude, and displayed in an overtly sexual manner.â
The FBIâs Violent Crimes Against Children (VCAC) unit confirmed that the images met the statutory definition of âchild pornographyâ and/or âsexually explicit conduct,â the complaint says.
The court docket did not indicate the date of Velasquezâs next hearing