Texas man sentenced to five years in prison for threatening to attack the Turning Point USA Congress in 2022

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Texas man who threatened online to launch a mass attack on a convention of young conservative activists in Florida in 2022 has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors said Alejandro Richard Velasquez Gomez, 20, of San Antonio, threatened on social media to attack the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa. Turning Point is a group allied with Donald Trump that organizes young people on college campuses for conservative activism. Velasquez pleaded guilty to interstate threatening communications in 2023 and was sentenced Wednesday.

Investigators said Velasquez posted on Instagram that the first day of Congress would be “the day of retribution, the day I will take revenge on all of humanity.” Velasquez had purchased a plane ticket for the July 22 flight from Austin to Tampa, but canceled the ticket the evening before his flight.

In court documents, investigators said they believed Velasquez was planning an attack similar to a 2014 shooting spree in which 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six students and injured more than a dozen others near the University of California, Santa Barbara before he killed himself.

In a statement announcing the sentence, federal prosecutors said Velasquez tried to obstruct the FBI investigation by using a group of underage girls to help him delete information from his online accounts and by contacting witnesses, to hide evidence and influence testimony.

“This man used social media to spread the message that he intended to travel across the country and commit an act of violence at an event for young political activists,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “Fortunately, his post was reported to officers, who intervened.”