By Associated Press
A man was arrested after authorities received a tip that he had posted videos online that appear to show him pointing weapons and practicing to carry out a mass shooting from a downtown San Diego hotel room.
Steve Homoki was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. He was arrested last week at his home on suspicion of possessing assault weapons, possessing high capacity magazines and child endangerment, the newspaper said.
Homoki, 30, was jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail. It wasn’t known if he has an attorney.
Authorities identified Homoki during an investigation that began Dec. 2 when the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force received a tip “concerning very distressing Youtube videos threatening firearm violence linked to San Diego,” Lt. Shawn Takeuchi of the San Diego Police Department said in a statement.
Following a two-day investigation, authorities served a search warrant at Homoki’s home in the Spring Valley area east of San Diego, seizing “several firearms” and arresting Homoki, police said.
In a pair of YouTube videos posted Sept. 17 and 18, a man can be seen inside a hotel room pointing multiple weapons toward the windows a few floors above ground level, the newspaper said. Pedestrians walk just below and across the street, unaware of the guns being aimed at them. The videos appear to be from a body-worn camera.
According to court documents obtained by KNSD-TV, the videos were likely recorded in March 2019, when Homoki allegedly checked into the Sofia Hotel under the false name Stephen Anderson — a moniker similar to the one he used to post the videos.
In one video, the man points a handgun and a rifle with a scope toward the closed window of the hotel room.
In a second video, the room is strewn with bullets, several firearms and a mannequin head, among other items, the newspaper reported. After pulling the trigger on an unloaded rifle and then tossing it away, the man recording the video picks up another rifle and mumbles to himself, “One down, more to go.”
Takeuchi praised the tipster and called Homoki’s arrest “an example of a community member coming forward with information that posed an immediate threat.”