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Last weekend could have even been even worse if not for this grandmother!

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  • Last weekend could have even been even worse if not for this grandmother!

    One day before gunman killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas mass shooting, Texas officials said a grandmother may have thwarted another possible attack


    Updated Aug 5, 12:56 PM; Posted Aug 5, 11:07 AM

    By Scott J. Croteau | [email protected]

    On Saturday, a gunman went into an El Paso, Texas shopping area and opened fire, killing 22 people and wounding dozens of others.

    One day earlier, federal authorities in Texas announced that another possible mass shooting was stopped after a suspect’s grandmother intervened.

    As the country reels from a series of mass shootings within less than a week, details of the arrest of a Lubbock, Texas man show how his grandmother may have prevented another tragedy.


    Thirty-one people were killed in the El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio shootings over the weekend. Roughly 50 people were also left injured. The mass shootings came on the heels of the attack at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California that left three people dead and more injured.

    Miles away from the El Paso mass shooting, and one day prior, officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas made an announcement.

    William Patrick Williams, 19, of Lubbock, Texas had been arrested on Thursday by ATF and FBI agents. Williams was brought into a federal court on Friday and charged with making false statements to a federally-licensed gun dealer.

    The lead federal prosecutor for the region made it very clear in a press release that investigators believed Williams was planning a mass shooting.

    “This was a tragedy averted,” U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said.

    It was Williams’ grandmother who helped save lives, Nealy Cox said.

    Last month, on July 13, Williams was admitted to a local hospital in Texas for psychiatric evaluation, records show. He had made threats to commit a mass shooting, according to authorities.

    “Williams stated that he had recently purchased an AK-47 style rifle and was wanting to ‘shoot up’ his hotel and then commit suicide by cop when the police arrived,” ATF Special Agent Jaclyn Yandell wrote in a federal affidavit.


    Williams’ grandmother received a call from him. He allegedly told his grandmother he was “homicidal and suicidal.”

    “The grandmother could hear Williams manipulating a firearm over the phone and was able to convince Williams to let her pick him up and take him to the hospital,” the ATF agent wrote.

    Williams allowed investigators to search his hotel room in Lubbock, Texas. There, in room 230, Williams had laid out all of his weapons on a bed for law enforcement officers to seize, records show.

    An AK-47 rifle, 17 loaded magazines, a black trench coat, several knives, black tactical pants and black tactical gloves were found in the room.

    There was also a black shirt with three words on it.

    “Let ‘Em Come,” was on the shirt, authorities said.

    A bag inside the hotel room contained documents chronicling Williams’ depression disorder and medication, according to federal records.

    It was an AK-47 style rifle that was used by the suspect in the Dayton, Ohio mass shooting.

    Eight days later, on July 22, ATF investigators received a firearms transaction form filled out by Williams on July 11. He had gone to a Cabela’s, a federally licensed firearms dealer, to purchase the gun.

    Williams listed his relatives’ address on the form. He no longer lived there, authorities said. ATF agents discovered Williams hadn’t lived at that address since at least mid-June.


    Williams uncle did not want him in the home alone because Williams had weapons, authorities wrote in the federal affidavit. The aunt and uncle had Williams move out. They took his keys to the home and changed the alarm code, records show.

    The false address on the form is the basis for the federal charge.

    “I want to praise the defendant’s grandmother, who saved lives by interrupting this plot, as well as the Lubbock police officers and federal agents who investigated this unlawful acquisition of a deadly weapon,” Nealy Cox said.

    Matthew DeSarno, special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Office, said law enforcement was able to work together to “find a solution that protected the public from harm.”

    Williams remains in federal custody and returns to court Wednesday for arraignment and a detention hearing.

    “The potential shooting has been averted,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in the second paragraph of the news release.

    This story has been updated after authorities announced Monday that 22 victims were killed in the El Paso, Texas mass shooting.
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