Two men who were from Iowa have been arrested on weapons charges after Boston Police were alerted to threats of violence against the participants of the Pokemon World Championship.
Security officers alerted the Boston Police Department to the threats found on Social Media against people who would be attending the event. The Pokemon World Championship is an annual esports event where participants come to battle each other and win huge amounts of prize money. Many thousands of people were also expected to come to the event to spectate as well as many more online on streams.
Police stopped the two males who were trying to enter the event. There were also reports that these men had driven to the event and had many firearms in their car. The car was then searched and many fire arms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in the car.
These two men who are aged 18 and 27 and are both from Iowa have been arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and other firearm charges.
Officer Rachel McGuire who is a Boston Police Department spokeswoman had this to say about the situation:
“There was not a nexus to terrorism but the investigation into the specific motive for the threats is ongoing,”
The Pokemon Company said this in a statement:
“Prior to the event this weekend, our community of players made us aware of a security issue,” “We gathered information and gave it as soon as possible to the authorities at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center who acted swiftly and spearheaded communication with the Boston Police Department. Due to quick action, the potential threat was resolved.”
This is a particularly scary situation and I am glad that police were able to identify and arrest these men before anyone got hurt.