Less than four hours before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final was set to begin on the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada authorities arrested a man who they say threatened to carry out a mass shooting at the stadium where the Golden Knights would win their first championship that night.
An arrest report released Thursday by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department identifies the suspect as Matthew DeSavio, whom detectives describe in the document as a 33-year-old man with a history of mental illness and arrests “that would make a person reasonably felt terrified, frightened, intimidated, harassed, or in fear for her immediate safety.” The report does not say whether detectives have found weapons in DeSavio’s possession.
An attorney who could comment on DeSavio’s behalf was not listed in jail or court records as of Thursday night.
In a series of incoherent text messages, phone calls and social media posts Tuesday, the report said, the suspect threatened to “shoot up” the hockey game against the Florida Panthers in a massacre that would rival the October mass shooting. 2017 on the Strip. That mass shooting, the deadliest in US history, left 60 dead and hundreds more injured.
Police were contacted by at least three people about the suspect in the hours before he was arrested Tuesday afternoon. The 911 callers included an elementary school acquaintance who told police DeSavio had been harassing her for nearly a decade, as well as a relative with an active restraining order against DeSavio, according to the report.
Court records show DeSavio’s arrests in Las Vegas dating back to 2014 on charges including domestic battery and stalking. Most recently, according to records, he was arrested in October on a felony charge of threatening an act of terrorism or mass destruction.
Details surrounding those threats were not immediately available Thursday, but court records show that he was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation.
According to a motion filed in March by his attorney, DeSavio “has been diagnosed with mental illness and found incompetent to stand trial.” However, after that diagnosis, he remained in the county jail in downtown Las Vegas for more than 70 days instead of undergoing treatment because, according to the motion, there were no beds available at either of the two forensic psychiatric centers in the state.
In April, a judge dismissed the terrorism charge against DeSavio after the state again failed to get him into one of the centers, according to the judge’s order. He was released.
DeSavio now faces another count of threatening to commit a terrorist act or mass destruction following his arrest Tuesday, court records show. He also faces one felony count of aggravated stalking and one felony misdemeanor charge for allegedly violating the restraining order against his relative.
According to his arrest report, he was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon at the workplace of one of the 911 callers, who told police the suspect had been harassing her for years, after both They met at school.
As the woman was being questioned by police Tuesday, DeSavio called her. “No more good man,” she told him, according to a transcript of the call detailed in the arrest report. “I’m heading to your office now. I’m almost there.”
Police said he was taken into custody without incident when he arrived. DeSavio was being held Thursday in the county jail on $60,000 bail. Records show that he has not been indicted in the case and is scheduled to appear in court next week.
