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By Miriam Raftery
December 14, 2019 (Spring Valley) -- A Spring Valley father was arrested after a tip to the FBI revealed two videos posted on YouTube showing Homoki simulating a mass shooting from a window in the Sofia Hotel in downtown San Diego. A search of his home turned up 14 guns including assault rifles and illegally modified weapons.
Steve Andrew Homoki, 30 pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of owning illegally modified firearms and child abuse due to loaded guns accessible to his three children.
The prosecution contends that the videos amounted to rehearsals for a mass shooting, though Homoki has not been charged for making or posting the videos.
Homoki claimed in a jailhouse interview with KFMB-TV that his actions were meant as a”miniature art project” because he wanted to do something “a little fun and different.”
The videos, posted under the alias Stephen Anderson, showed Homoki pointing an assault rifle and handgun out the hotel window and firing without ammunition. “You drop one mag, you pick up another, right?” he states on one of the videos. “Then you drop it, you drop the gun, pick up another gun.”
Although the video carried a disclaimer calling it satire and a private video, it was available to the public online.
The tipster told the FBI that Homoki’s posts over several months were disturbing and indicated he had “gone off the deep end,” CNN reports.
The FBI was notified of the videos on November 30, three months after Homoki posted them, and made the arrest within three days. Scott Brunner, head of the FBI’s San Diego office, issued a statement praising the “extraordinarily swift investigative efforts” of the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force. San Diego Police led the investigation.
The suspect has no prior criminal convictions, according to his court-appointed lawyer, but was considered a suspect for stalking a former girlfriend in 2017.
He is charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor. If convicted, he could face over ten years in prison.
Superior Court Judge Joseoph Brannigan set bail at $1 million.
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Red flag laws work