Mass shooting by disgruntled hotel cook thwarted at California Marriott, police say
- Long Beach police claim the suspect had huge arsenal and well-laid plans
- Rodolfo Montoya allegedly plotted a revenge attack on Marriott
Police in Long Beach, California, appear to have thwarted a mass shooting by arresting a hotel cook who had amassed a cache of powerful firearms and had well-laid plans to carry out a gun rampage throughout the hotel.
Rodolfo Montoya, 37, was picked up at his home in Huntington Beach on Tuesday, authorities said. The previous day he had allegedly confessed to a fellow worker at the Long Beach Marriott that he planned to carry out the attack as a revenge act for a grudge he bore the company.
The fellow worker sounded the alarm. In ensuing searches, police said they discovered the pile of firearms that included pistols, two assault rifles of the sort used in several recent mass shootings, a pump-action shotgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
The alleged plan to attack the Marriott again puts the spotlight on American gun laws. A key question being addressed by detectives is how Montoya came to amass such a stash of deadly weapons without drawing attention to himself.
It is thought that he had no prior criminal record, which would have freed him to buy some firearms over the counter.
Even so, several of the weapons in his possession are illegal in California, including the assault rifles, and investigators will try to find out whether he obtained them by nefarious means or out of state.
