Man held over massacre threats

2008-04-04 13:06

Miami - A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening over the internet to undertake a Virginia Tech-style massacre, authorities said on Thursday.

Oregon authorities learned of a March 25 internet message allegedly posted by Calin Chi Wong in which he threatened to re-enact the Virginia Tech killings. Two days later, Homestead Police searched the home Wong shares with his parents and found the weapons stacked on shelves in plain view, Detective Antonio Aquino said.

Wong had 13 firearms in all, more than 5 000 rounds of ammunition, some that could pierce armour, and 100 rounds in a feeding clip with bullets "meant to take down aircraft or military machinery," Aquino said.

He had hidden two AK-47s in his parents' closet, and his parents said the guns did not belong to them, Aquino said.

Homestead Police first noticed Wong when he went to the department in February to complain he had been robbed of $800 over the internet after he ordered a gun online using his father's PayPal account.

He told authorities he had called the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other agencies about the issue. Aquino said Wong finally reached a boiling point when he posted the message saying he would re-enact the Virginia Tech massacre, in which student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people last year before turning the gun on himself.

"After speaking to him and seeing his frustration, I believe that he had the potential to carry out some kind of threat," Aquino said.

Wong told police he was just upset and frustrated and never actually planned a killing spree, Aquino said.

- AP