Arizona Man Indicted After Plotting Mass Shooting To ‘Incite Race War’: Feds

A federal grand jury has indicted an Arizona gun vendor for allegedly selling firearms to be used in a mass shooting he was planning in hopes of inciting a “race war” ahead of the 2024 presidential election, authorities said.

Mark Adams Prieto, 58, of Prescott was indicted Tuesday on charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm, the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizonaannounced.

Prieto was taken into custody in New Mexico on May 14 after allegedly supplying rifles to an informant and an undercover agent while plotting out an attack on African Americans and other minorities at a concert in Atlanta.

According to federal prosecutors, Prieto told the individuals, who he met while selling at gun shows, that he hoped to “kill as many people as possible” and leave Confederate flags, Ku Klux Klan propaganda and other “offensive rhetoric” at the scene of the shooting in order to incite retaliation and start a race war.

“In his mind, it had to unequivocally be perceived as race related. He expressed frustration with the direction the country is going and a willingness to do violence to change its direction,” prosecutors said in a May 17 court document arguing for his detention pending trial.

Prieto allegedly personally chose the city where the shooting would take place and the specific guns that the trio would use in their attack. When one of the other two participants said they did not have an AR-15 rifle, which was the firearm Prieto wanted everyone to use, Prieto supplied them with one, prosecutors said.

“Prieto did not know the individuals were working with the government, but instead believed that they shared his racist beliefs and wanted to commit a