Yahoo News Chef at Marriott hotel ‘planned attack on guests and co-workers with haul of high-powered weapons’
A chef has been arrested for allegedly plotting a mass shooting at the hotel where he works in California.
Police say Rodolfo Montoya planned to kill co-workers and guests at the Marriott Hotel in Long Beach following a dispute with his HR department.
The 37-year-old’s was arrested at his home in Huntingdon Beach, where officers seized a massive arsenal of high powered weapons, including two assault rifles, a pump-action shotgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Montoya’s alleged plot was only foiled when he told a co-worker, who then informed their manager.
Standing beside the weapons haul, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said that the police had “worked to avert what could have been a real tragedy”.
Police Chief Robert Luna added: “Suspect Montoya had clear plans, intent and the means to carry out an act of violence that may have resulted in a mass casualty incident.”
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Montoya, who has no previous criminal history, may have bought the weapons from another state or bought them illegally before modifying them.
Referencing the current debate about gun control in the United States, Mayor Garcia said: “We know that there is a serious conversation happening across the country… around who has access to dangerous weapons, who has access to illegal guns and magazines.
“And there is no question that as a country and as a community, we are having a conversation about that and need to do more, and we should be doing more.”
Montoya has been charged with manufacturing and distributing assault weapons, possession of an assault weapon and making a criminal threat and is being held on bail.
