Police: Crofton man planned mass shooting, called himself 'Joker'

[RedStateLiberal]

Source: The Baltimore Sun

A Crofton man declared himself a “joker” and repeatedly threatened to “blow everybody up” at a Capitol Heights company according to Prince George’s County police — an apparent reference to last week’s mass murder during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo.

Neil Edwin Prescott, 28, was taken into custody Thursday — while wearing a T-shirt that said “Guns don’t kill people, I do” — and transferred to Anne Arundel Medical Center for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, police said. He has not been charged with any crimes.

Officers discovered more than 25 firearms and several thousand rounds of ammunition at his apartment on the 1600 block of Parkridge Circle during a search Friday.

An application for the search warrant claims Prescott called a colleague, who worked with him at mail services supplier Pitney Bowes on the 9100 block of East Hampton Blvd., Monday and repeatedly said “I am a joker, I’m gonna load my guns.” He also said he wanted to “see the supervisor’s brain splatter all over the sidewalk,” court records show.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bal-crofton-suspect-planned-mass-shooting-akin-to-aurora-police-say-20120727,0,3719190.story

[99th_Monkey]

1. Wow! Sounds like some good police work

and is apparently raising the question about whether just saying you're going to
do something is a crime, which can be a potential slippery slope to there being
"thought crimes".

Does anyone know of a crime that you could say this fellow committed?
assuming of course that all those firearms were obtained legally, which sadly
is a distinct possibility.

Is it a crime to have an "Intent to commit murder"? Those "domestic terrorists" who
were arrested in Portland and else where recently, hadn't yet done the deed,
so apparently there are such laws about deadly intent, I just don't exactly
know what they are.

[RedStateLiberal]

3. Death threats are a crime. (nt)

[99th_Monkey]

4. I was just wondering why they haven't charged him

with anything yet. Guess they're completing investigation.

I know a specific death threat towards a specific person or person is
a crime, but wasn't sure this rose to that level. I guess he did name
his "supervisor" as a specific target, so yah..

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Psy eval comes first to see how real his homicidal ideations are

and for some indication if he is sane enough to go to trial, actually.
If he is seriously mentally ill, and if the state has the law to support confinement, they may just
put him into a hospital for a good while. Depends on how off the charts he is.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

11. One could say that giving a death threat like that is a form of insanity.

Judging someone sane enough to stand trial is very subjective.
What is "normal" and what is "sane"? Lots of room for mistakes.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. No worries...

they have this manual to follow, one that gets updated every few years
( throwing out some "old" mental illnesses that people have been taking meds for ....
hooray, you are no longer mentally ill...we just eliminated your diagnosis!!!)

and they have psychiatrists on each side ( prosecutor/defense) who can argue and disagree forever.
Meanwhile, the guy will sit in a safe place and take his Thorizine..... or else.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

14. I understand this subject better than most.

My adult son has been living with us and is on SSI disability for over 22 years now, some meds stop working, some good days and some not so good.
predicting the future is hard to do.

[Quantess]

6. Copycat crimes? Nah, they never happen, ever.

Especially not when the perp gets more attention and notoriety than he ever dreamed of!

[99th_Monkey]

16. I wonder how many other ticking time bombs there are

... delusional haters of virtually everything good, with a stockpile of
murderous weaponry sitting around just waiting to get used. I don't
like trying to imagine how many.

[xtraxritical]

7. I woud say "terrorist threats" would be an easy conviction.

[99th_Monkey]

17. Nah. It would never stick.

he's not a brown-skinned Muslim.

Didn't you know that all terrorists are brown-skinned Muslims?

[Tx4obama]

8. Mitt Romney said something in an interview clip I saw yesterday ...

Not his exact words but he said something like: finding the folks that are thinking about committing a crime.
The first thing I thought about was THOUGHT POLICE.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Thought police law already in effect in Ca.

Which is why I decided to leave the Mental Health Field when I was there.
Psychiatrists, Mental Health people, Social Workers are required to report any "bad things" they think could happen..as in the future...by a current client's behavior.

Example: Impoverished working mother has only elderly grandmother in a wheelchair as caretaker of 4 year old child. It could be possible that child could be in a room playing that the wheelchair could not go into.
I was told, by a licensed psychiatrist, that under Cal. law I had to report the mother to CPS.
This, after working with the mother for weeks to get her to access help for other problems.

True story.

[99th_Monkey]

15. Yikes!! Turning professional care givers into snitches

does not sound wise to me. It will certainly have the effect of people
just not getting the help they need, for fear of getting turned into Big
Brother; and the "cure" becoming worse than the disease.

Sorry to hear about how this is happening and about how it's effecting
your professional life. Congrats tho on making a conscientious choice
to not participate in this travesty.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. It ended my career, that's for sure.

but turned out ok, I took early retirement.
Scary to know that others in the field felt ok with clairvoyance as a requirement of keeping their jobs.

[99th_Monkey]

19. I had a similar experience, but decades ago

I was a Child Care Worker during mid-60s,
assigned to two autistic 9-10 year olds.

I loved my work. I felt so supported and so
connected to my peer-staff and with the
children.

Then one day, like out of the blue,
The Behaviorists invaded our luminous
bubble and pulled out the cattle prods,
literally.

I was devastated, so much so all I could do
was get a divorce and live in my van for 2 years,
which is another story for another time.

Just to say, I can SO relate. I totally
respect your decision to unplug from the Borg,
to definitively sever that connection to Death itself.

[RedStateLiberal]

2. Crofton is in Maryland (in case any were wondering)

I'm disturbed by the potential for copycats since Aurora. This is the 2nd one I've noticed that's been caught before they did anything, thankfully.

[southernyankeebelle]

9. Gee, I use to live near Crofton when I lived in Odenton near Ft Meade.

My goodness he could sure do alot of damage.