Indictment alleges man threatened mass shooting at Stanley Cup game in Las Vegas

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada grand jury has indicted a man on felony charges alleging he threatened to carry out a mass shooting in June at a Stanley Cup Final hockey game on the Las Vegas Strip.

The six-count indictment handed down this week in state court charges Matthew DeSavio, 34, with threatening an act of terrorism, burglary and stalking.

Las Vegas police arrested DeSavio hours before Game 5 was set to begin at T-Mobile Arena, where the Vegas Golden Knights would go on to defeat the Florida Panthers to capture their first championship that evening.

The indictment doesn’t detail whether DeSavio had any weapons in his possession at the time of his arrest.

Jessica Murphy, a deputy public defender who previously represented DeSavio in competency hearings, declined to comment about the indictment, and the Clark County public defender’s office said Thursday the case hasn’t yet been assigned to a lawyer who could immediately comment on DeSavio’s behalf.

DeSavio, who is being held without bail at a county jail in downtown Las Vegas, has not entered a plea. His arraignment is scheduled for next week in Clark County District Court.

Police and prosecutors have said DeSavio, in a series of rambling text messages, phone calls and social media posts, threatened to “shoot up” the hockey game in a massacre that would rival the October 2017 mass shooting on the Strip. That mass shooting — the deadliest in modern American history — left 60 dead and hundreds more injured.

At least three people contacted police about the threats, authorities said, leading to the arrest.