Four arrested with 100 rounds of ammunition in suspected terror plot on MLB game

More than a dozen firearms were seized

Helen Elfer
Monday 12 July 2021 21:35 BST
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The hotel room’s vantage point, potentially overlooking large crowds, along with the quantity of weapons and ammunition drew comparisons with the Las Vegas shooting massacre in October 2017.
The hotel room’s vantage point, potentially overlooking large crowds, along with the quantity of weapons and ammunition drew comparisons with the Las Vegas shooting massacre in October 2017. (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

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Police say a mass-shooting at the Major League baseball All-Star game in Denver may have been averted, after four men were arrested and a stash of weaponry was seized.

Authorities were tipped off by a maid who was working in a hotel near the Coors Field baseball park, leading police to execute a search warrant. They discovered narcotics, body armour, 16 guns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition in an eighth-floor room with a balcony overlooking the downtown area, according to the Denver Post.

Denver police are not ruling out the possibility that a “Las Vegas-style” shooting had been planned. The hotel room’s vantage point, potentially overlooking large crowds, along with the quantity of weapons and ammunition drew comparisons with the Las Vegas shooting massacre in October 2017.

Stephen Paddock, 64, fired into a crowd of music festival-goers from a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 60 and injuring hundreds more.

The FBI has said it has no reason to believe there was an intended threat to the MLB game.

Denver FBI office Acting Public Affairs Specialist Courtney Bernal, said in a statement: “We have no reason to believe this incident was connected to terrorism or a threat directed at the All-Star Game,” adding “We are not aware of any threat to the All-Star Game events, venues, players or the community at this time.”

Richard Platt, 42, Gabriel Rodriguez, 48, Ricardo Rodriguez, 44, and Kanoelehua Serikawa, 43, were taken into custody after the raid. According to The Denver Post, one of the suspects, who was not named, had recently posted on Facebook that he had plans to “go out in a big way" following a recent divorce.

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