FLINT — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Michigan, Eastern), published as received.
FLINT – An Owosso, Michigan man fixated on mass murderers was sentenced today to 7 years in federal prison for attempting to commit his own attack, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. announced. Gorgon was joined in the announcement by Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Detroit Division. Mack Davis, 23, was sentenced after pleading guilty to one count under the federal hate crime statute.
According to court documents, Davis became infatuated with other mass murderers and planned to conduct his own mass murder. Among other things, Davis drafted a list of weapons and tactical gear for his plan. Davis’s own writings show that he surveilled churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, hospitals, and supermarkets. In his writings, Davis expressed his “hate for this world and for the people in it, all people, I hate you all the same.” Davis posted selfies of himself making a Nazi salute and holding a copy of Adolf Hitler’s antisemitic manifesto, Mein Kampf.
As he began to plot his own mass murder, Davis focused on attacking two locations in close proximity to one another: a political party’s county headquarters and a bar, both of which he believed would contain homosexuals. He also explained that he would “fire on anyone and anything” near those locations.
Leading up to his attack, Davis test-fired approximately 60 bullets into his neighbors’ cars, one of which he had previously vandalized with an anti-gay slur. Law enforcement’s investigation of the shooting led to their disruption of Davis’s attempt to commit the mass shooting. During the search of his home, police found that he had an arsenal that included an illegally sawed-off rifle, a shotgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow and arrows, bomb-making parts, tactical gear, and knives. On one of the knives, Davis wrote a foul anti-gay slur on one side of the blade and “Death to you all” and a swastika on the other side of the blade.
Davis also defiled an Israeli flag.
“Davis devised wicked plans. He said he would kill ‘anyone and anything’ that crossed his path and planned to attack homosexuals. And his venom for Jews is part of the sickening rise in antisemitism and attacks against believers. But we will protect every American,” U.S. Attorney Gorgon said.
"There is no room for targeted hate crimes against any citizen on American soil, including in our community of Owosso,” said Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “We are grateful for the strong collaboration between our FBI Flint Resident Agency, the Owosso Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Michigan State Police in disrupting this hate-inspired plot before anyone was harmed. Let this sentence serve as a notice that if you target others with hate or violence, you will face the full weight of justice under federal law."
This case was investigated by the FBI Detroit Field Office, Flint Resident Agency, in collaboration with the Owosso Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and the Michigan State Police. The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division assisted in the prosecution.
