Left: Alejandro Richard Velasquez Gomez is seen in a selfie-style picture; right, Gomez in a skeleton mask allegedly holding his CPAC pass. (Images via FBI court filing.)
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 “revenge against all of humanity” by attacking the Turning Point USA conference scheduled for July 22-24.
“July 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,” Velasquez allegedly wrote, using the online handle “LatinoZoomer.”
“SAS will be the turning point of the LatinoZoomer lore,” Velasquez reportedly continued, adding a green gun emoji symbolizing a “water pistol” followed by three emojis depicting a face with steam coming out of its nose.
“SAS” stands for Student Action Summit, an activist outfit affiliated with the pro-Donald Trump group Turning Point USA. The group’s 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.
“[T]ry kicking me out n***a,” 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 Velasquez’s July 28 Instagram post and “believed the post to be a credible threat” against the SAS conference. Turning Point USA was also reportedly aware of his planned attendance, and the FBI’s investigation revealed that Velasquez has purchased a plane ticket to fly from Austin to Tampa on July 2 — although he had apparently cancelled his ticket the night before the flight.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Velasquez’s alleged comments sounded familiar.
“Based on my training and experience, I know the wording in this post is similar to the message left by ‘incel’ mass shooter, Elliot Rodger, who filmed a video from inside his car discussing his ‘day of retribution’ before he killed six people,” 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.
“Tomorrow is the day of retribution,” Rodger had said in a video. “The day in which I will have my revenge against humanity. Against all of you.”
As the affidavit for Velasquez noted, “incel” refers to “Involuntary Celibate” ideology, which the affidavit describes as having “an extreme hatred towards, and endorses violence against, women and sexually active people.”
The affidavit also notes that the similarities were not a coincidence.
“While executing the search warrant for his phone Velasquez told me that he had posted the “day of retribution” message and that he had taken that photo in that Instagram post,” the affidavit says. “He explained to me that he intended the post to evoke Elliot Rodger and was familiar with Elliot Rodger due to extensive online research.”
The images of child sexual abuse were allegedly discovered during the FBI’s search of Velasquez’s phone.
“On August 3, I located a screenshot of three images posted on an unidentified social media platform stored on his cell phone,” the complaint says. “The three images within the screenshot appeared to be minors, nude, and displayed in an overtly sexual manner.”
The FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children (VCAC) unit confirmed that the images met the statutory definition of “child pornography” and/or “sexually explicit conduct,” the complaint says.
The court docket did not indicate the date of Velasquez’s next hearing.
[Images via FBI court filing.]
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