Boston Police Department ‘Pokemon’ and ‘gun-toting maniacs’ aren’t two things you’d usually associate with each other – until today.
Two Pokemon fans took their passion for the trading card game way too far. After making violent threats to other attendees of the Pokemon World Championship, they set to make good their promise to ‘kill the competition’, and were arrested en route to the competition with a car full of guns.
Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27, were stopped by officers on their way to the competition in Boston after the police were warned of the threats the pair had made online.
Facebook - Stumbo & Norton Boston Police Department released a statement saying:
On Friday, August 21, 2015, detectives received and executed a search warrant for the suspect vehicle. Upon execution of the warrant, detectives recovered one 12-gauge Remington shotgun, one DPMS Model AR-15 rifle, several hundred rounds of ammunition, and a hunting knife.
Paul Fitzgerald, commander superintendent of the department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis, said that officers had stopped a ‘potential tragedy’. He said:
The relationship between police and private sector security is important in both our community policing philosophy, as well as our counter-terrorism strategy. This incident is a good example of private security reaching out to their local Boston police district and relaying information to detectives and BRIC analysts in order to identify the very real threat. The BPD detectives and collaborating agencies did a great job in the stop and prevention of a potential tragedy.
Stumbo had posted a photo of his car with several weapons on it to Facebook.
Facebook Pokemon Company International released a statement on the situation:
Prior to the event this weekend, our community of players made us aware of a security issue. We gathered information and gave it as soon as possible to the authorities at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center who acted swiftly and spearheaded communication with the Boston Police Department. Due to quick action, the potential threat was resolved. The Pokémon Company International takes the safety of our fans seriously and will continue to ensure proper security measures are a priority.
At this point it’s not totally clear why they wanted to shoot the other attendees.
What a couple of nutters.
