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Incel Allegedly Planned ‘Revenge’ Massacre of Sorority Members

The 21-year-old has been indicted for planning to commit a hate crime and unlawful possession of a machine gun.
WLWT
WLWT

A 21-year-old self-identified incel was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday for planning to commit a hate crime, after allegedly detailing his “revenge” plot to murder sorority members at a university in Ohio.

Tres Genco was detained in March 2020 after police responded to a call at his house that he had locked himself in his bedroom with a gun and threatened someone that he lived with, according to a complaint filed in federal court last year. 

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After searching the trunk of the would-be shooter’s car, police found body armor, ammunition, and an AR-15 equipped with a “bump stock” like the one used in the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, the deadliest in modern history. They also found a handgun, according to court filings. 

The would-be shooter allegedly posted on an incel forum for nine months between July 2019 and March 2020, according to Wednesday’s indictment—during which time he also completed basic training for the Army at Fort Benning in Georgia before being discharged for “entry level performance and conduct,” according to the filing. 

In his online posts, the would-be shooter referred to Elliot Rodger, the California incel who murdered six people and injured more than a dozen others before killing himself in 2014. The poster referred to Rodger as “the saint,” and said he “sprayed some [women] and couples” with orange juice in a water gun, which he called an “extremely empowering action.” 

In the years since his deadly Isla Vista rampage, Rodger has become a hero in incel circles. Alek Minassian, who killed 10 people in a van attack in Toronto in 2018, told police that he communicated with Rodger before the attack and that the Isla Vista murders made him “feel radicalized.” 

The would-be Ohio shooter allegedly wrote a manifesto in which he detailed his hatred of women and said he would “slaughter out of hatred, jealousy, and revenge,” according to the indictment. He also allegedly “conducted surveillance” at the college on January 15, 2020, and on the same day searched online for "planning a shooting crime" and "When does preparing for a crime become an attempt?" The suspect allegedly also repeatedly referenced the date May 23, 2020 as when he would carry out the attack. 

Though the college is not named in the documents, the charging documents claim that the suspect “conducted internet research” on Columbus police and university police scanner codes, suggesting that his intended target was The Ohio State University. 

A few days before the “surveillance,” the suspect allegedly prepared a document titled “isolated” which referenced doing “something horrible” and describing himself as “deluded and homicidal,” according to court filings. It was signed “Your hopeful friend and murderer.” 

If convicted, the maximum penalty for an attempted hate crime charge with intent to kill is life in prison. The suspect was also charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.