MAGA MAN

Arizona man planned a mass shooting targeting African Americans at an Atlanta concert to incite a race war, feds say

Janelle Griffith
Updated Wed, June 12, 2024

An Arizona man planned a mass shooting targeting African Americans and other minorities at a rap concert in Atlanta in May, looking to incite a race war ahead of the presidential election, federal authorities said.

Mark Adams Prieto was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm. The indictment follows a monthslong investigation by the FBI that ended with his arrest last month, the Justice Department said. A spokesperson for the agency said Prieto is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service for transport from New Mexico to Arizona. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation into Prieto, 58, of Prescott, began in October, after a confidential source reported to FBI Phoenix that an individual, later identified as Prieto, had expressed a desire to incite a race war prior to the presidential election, the arrest affidavit states. The source told authorities that they had spoken to Prieto more than 15 times over three years at various gun shows. The chats grew from small talk to include political conversations, the affidavit says. Within the last year, the source told authorities that Prieto began making suspicious and alarming comments, including “advocating for a mass shooting,” and specifically targeting Blacks, Jews or Muslims, the affidavit says.


The source said “Prieto believes that martial law will be implemented shortly after the 2024 election and that a mass shooting should occur prior” to its implementation, and asked the source in late 2023 if they were “ready to kill a bunch of people,” which indicated to authorities his desire to recruit people to assist him in carrying out an attack, according to the affidavit.

Prieto was a vendor at gun shows in Prescott and would trade firearms from his personal collection, using only cash deals or trades to evade the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the affidavit says, adding that this was corroborated through monitoring with the help of the source.

The FBI had Prieto under surveillance from January to March.

On Jan. 21, Prieto told the source and an undercover FBI agent acting as an associate of the source at a gun show in Phoenix that he wanted them to help him carry out a mass shooting targeting African Americans at a yet-to-be-determined rap concert in Atlanta, the affidavit says.

According to the affidavit, Prieto said: “The reason I say Atlanta. Why, why is Georgia such a f------up state now? When I was a kid that was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why is it not now? Because as the crime got worse in L.A., St. Louis, and all these other cities, all the [N-words] moved out of those [places] and moved to Atlanta. That’s why it isn’t so great anymore. And they’ve been there for a couple, several years.”

He also said that he wanted to target a rap concert because there would be a high concentration of African Americans there and he planned to leave confederate flags after the shooting to send a message that “we’re going to fight back now, and every whitey will be the enemy across the whole country,” and to shout “whities out here killing, what’s we gonna do” and “KKK all the way,” the affidavit says. Prieto said he wanted to show “no mercy, no quarter.”

Prieto is also alleged to have discussed with the source and undercover agent what types of weapons he planned to use, to have suggested that they travel to Atlanta before the attack to store weapons in the area, and to have stressed that the most important thing was a high body count.

Surveillance photo of Mark Prieto at a gun show in Arizona (U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona)

“He specifically said that the attack should occur following Super Tuesday so that they would know the election candidates,” the affidavit says.

About a month later, while under surveillance, Prieto went to a gun show in Phoenix and walked to the source’s vendor booth, where he asked the source and the undercover agent whether they still planned to participate in the attack, the affidavit says. On the second day of that February gun show, Prieto is alleged to have sold a firearm to the undercover agent for $2,000.

On March 23, at a gun show in Prescott Valley, Prieto told the undercover agent that he still planned to go forward with the attack, saying that if they waited until after the election, “they might have everything in place you can’t even drive, you’ll be stopped,” the affidavit says. He also said that the targeted event would likely be a rap concert at State Farm Arena in Atlanta scheduled to take place May 14 and May 15, or sometime in June or July, according to the affidavit. Authorities did not specify what concert, but the May dates provided match two nights Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny was scheduled to perform at that arena. Prieto told the undercover agent that he wanted them to wear hoodies, according to the affidavit, because he believed no one was going to be suspicious about someone wearing a hoodie at a rap concert. The next day, Prieto is alleged to have sold an AR-15 rifle to the undercover agent for $1,000 and instructed him to use it during the attack and to bring as many magazines as he could carry, the affidavit says.

At another gun show in April in Prescott Valley, the affidavit says, when the undercover agent asked Prieto whether the attack would still take place in May, he said he wanted to push it back. Prieto was arrested on a New Mexico interstate on May 14. He admitted to knowing the undercover agent and the confidential source and to having discussed with them conducting an attack on a public venue in Atlanta like a “rock” concert attended by young people and minorities.

“However, he told agents that he did not intend to go forward with the attack,” the affidavit states. He is also alleged to have admitted to having sold an AR-15 to the undercover agent and that he told the agent it would be a good firearm to use in the attack. The affidavit says he also told agents he had five firearms in his vehicle and more at his home. Law enforcement subsequently executed a search warrant at his home and recovered more firearms, including an unregistered short-barreled rifle, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com


Man planned racist mass shooting at Bad Bunny concert to spark ‘race war,’ feds say

Julia Marnin
Wed, June 12, 2024

An Arizona man planned a mass shooting targeting Black concertgoers in Atlanta in an attempt to spark a “race war” before November’s U.S. presidential election, federal prosecutors said.

Mark Adams Prieto, a 58-year-old gun show vendor, intended for the violence to unfold at a “rap concert” at the State Farm Arena on May 14 and May 15, court documents say.

The venue’s calendar shows Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny was the only artist scheduled for those dates.

Prieto’s plan unraveled because he was unaware that the two people he discussed it with between January and May were working with the FBI, according to prosecutors.

Prieto, who is white, revealed the details of his plot — including how he said “he planned to leave confederate flags after the shooting” — with both individuals at gun shows in Arizona, an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint.

He was mistaken in believing “they shared his racist beliefs,” prosecutors said.

Prieto, of Prescott, was indicted by a federal grand jury June 11 on charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm, the U.S. The Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced in a new release.

Information regarding his legal representation wasn’t immediately available.
‘Suspicious and alarming comments’

Prieto landed on the FBI’s radar in October, when one of the people working with the agency informed the FBI’s Phoenix office that Prieto “expressed a desire to incite a race war” before the election, the affidavit says.

Over the past three years, this individual had made small talk with Prieto at multiple gun shows, according to the affidavit.

“Within the last year,” the person told the FBI that Prieto “began making suspicious and alarming comments, including advocating for a mass shooting, and specifically targeting ‘blacks, Jews, or Muslims,’” the affidavit says.

They said Prieto was convinced that martial law will be enforced following the election “and that a mass shooting should occur prior to the implementation of martial law,” the FBI agent wrote in the affidavit.
Why Atlanta?

At a gun show in Phoenix on Jan. 20, Prieto made small talk with this individual and an undercover FBI agent, the affidavit says.

On Jan. 21, the second day of the gun show, Prieto revealed he wanted to carry out a mass shooting against Black people at an Atlanta rap concert, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit says Prieto told them:

“The reason I say Atlanta. Why, why is Georgia such a (expletive) state now? When I was a kid that was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why is it not now? Because as the crime got worse in LA, St. Louis, and all these other cities, all the (racial slurs) moved out of those (places) and moved to Atlanta.”

On Feb. 24, at a gun show in Phoenix, Prieto told the two people working with the FBI that he wanted to cause “panic” and “pandemonium” at the concert, and for the concertgoers to be corralled during the shooting, according to the affidavit.

This photo shows Prieto arriving at the gun show on Feb. 24, according to court documents.

The next day, he sold one of them an “AK-style” rifle and later sold them an “AR-style” rifle on March 24, prosecutors said.

On March 23, Prieto had a vendor table with nine firearms at a gun show in Prescott, where he confirmed he wanted the mass shooting to happen May 14 and 15, according to the affidavit.

He then proposed pushing back the date of the attack to June or July, saying “The hotter the weather, the better because people will want to be outside more. When it gets hot, people can’t think straight,” the affidavit says.
Arrest made

Prieto was under constant FBI surveillance as he developed his plan, according to prosecutors.

After leaving Arizona, he was arrested in New Mexico while heading east on Interstate 40 on May 14, prosecutors said.

Inside his car, authorities found seven firearms and located additional guns at his home, “including an unregistered short-barreled rifle,” according to prosecutors.

If convicted on a firearms trafficking charge he could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. If Prieto is convicted of transfer of firearm for use in a hate crime, the charge carries the same maximum penalties.

For the charge of possession of an unregistered firearm, Prieto could be sentenced up to 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000 if he’s convicted, according to prosecutors.

Prieto was ordered to be detained ahead of trial because “the nature and seriousness of danger to the community is extreme,” court records show.