Lois Lerner, the midlevel Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a controversy over treatment of small-government groups, Wednesday invoked her right not to testify after reading a statement denying that she had committed any PALMER PARK, Md. – A Maryland man who called himself “a joker” and had an arsenal of semiautomatic rifles threatened to shoot up the Washington, D.C.-area business from which he was being fired and was wearing a T-shirt that read “Guns Don’t Kill People. I Do,” when first confronted by officers, police said Friday.
The man, identified in a search warrant as Neil E. Prescott, told a supervisor at software and mailroom supplier PitneyBowes that, “I’m a joker and I’m gonna load my guns and blow everybody up,” and that he wanted to see the supervisor’s “brain splatter all over the sidewalk,” according to a search warrant.
The threats were made in two phone calls this week, and investigators who searched the 28-year-old’s apartment Friday morning found several thousand rounds of ammunition and about two dozen semiautomatic rifles and pistols. He was receiving a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital and charges were pending Friday.
“We can’t measure what was prevented here, but … we think a violent episode was avoided,” Prince George’s County Police Chief Mark Magaw said.
“In light of what happened a week ago in Aurora Colo., it’s important to know … that we take all threats seriously. And if you’re going to make a threat, we will take action,” Magaw said.
Though there’s no other indication of a link to the Colorado shooting, police believe the joker comments Prescott made were a “clear reference” to the killings, the warrant says.
