A federal grand jury indicted Mark Adams Prieto on charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm.

June 12, 2024, 1:47 PM PDT
By Janelle Griffith

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.

“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.
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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.