A foreign student is being charged with a plot for mass murder at his school by cops, and it was a gun store owner who stopped him.
A Syracuse University student, who had stockpiled ammunition and gun accessories in his downtown apartment, was stopped before carrying out threats of a mass shooting, city police revealed today.
Xiaoteng Zhan, 22, was deported back to China by federal agents March 20 as he returned to Syracuse from spring break in Mexico, Syracuse Deputy Police Chief Derek McGork said.
Here’s what tipped off the cops:
It all started with a tip March 12 from The Gun Store, in Nelson, which said Zhan wanted to buy an AR-15 rifle — the weapon of choice in many recent mass shootings.
The owner called police, noting that Zhan was not a U.S. citizen but was here legally on a student visa. Zhan had a valid hunting license — which he picked up the day before — which allowed him to possess a gun as a non-citizen, McGork said. Zhan had taken gun safety courses in Verona.
Zhan also asked the gun store about high capacity shotguns, McGork said.
The store owner followed Zhan into the parking lot after refusing to sell him firearms. He copied down the license plate number.
The cops ran a weeklong investigation and got enough evidence to get a warrant and they found a lot of gun paraphernalia in his possession – it looks like he just needed to buy a gun.
He also told friends what he was planning:
Zhan told a friend that the “dark side” had pushed him to buy a gun, bulletproof vest and other items, McGork said, reading from an English translation of their messages.
“I might use the gun to cause trouble,” Zhan said, adding, “I have been preparing.”
When his alarmed friend begged him not to shoot children or kill her, Zhan responded: “You’re the only one I don’t want to kill.”
…authorities were able to find out that Zhan had sought psychiatric care at two different facilities recently. Those records showed he described drinking, suicidal thoughts, major depression, thoughts of driving a car into a tree, feelings like he might lose control and violence toward no one in particular, McGork said.
Mental health professionals agreed: Zhan wasn’t someone who should have a gun, McGork said. That allowed authorities to put him on a list that prohibited stores from selling him a gun.
So they sent him packing for home. A story about how alert citizens possibly prevented a terrible shooting.
Here’s the guy who is now being called a hero: