Mack Davis, 23, of Owosso, Mich., was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for planning a mass-casualty attack against multiple targets, including synagogues, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday.
Davis pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge after authorities disrupted what prosecutors described as an attempted mass murder plot.
Police were first alerted to Davis when the Owosso Police Department responded to reports of gunfire into vehicles on June 17, 2024, and determined it “likely originated from Davis’s bedroom window,” according to the affidavit.
A subsequent search of his home uncovered an arsenal that included an illegally modified short-barreled rifle, a shotgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow, bomb-making materials, 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.
Police also discovered an Israeli flag on which he had written “kill Jews” and “death to you all” and drawn a swastika in the center of the Star of David.
Prosecutors said Davis had become “infatuated” with mass killers and spent months researching attacks, compiling weapons lists and surveilling potential targets. Those included a political party headquarters and a nearby bar he believed would be frequented by gay people, as well as other locations such as synagogues, churches, mosques, schools, hospitals and supermarkets.
He posted images of himself performing a Nazi salute and holding Mein Kampf, the Justice Department said. He also vandalized neighbors’ vehicles with anti-gay slurs and, leading up to the attack, fired about 60 rounds into nearby properties while test-firing a weapon, authorities said.
“Davis devised wicked plans,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. stated. “He said he would kill ‘anyone and anything’ that crossed his path.”
“And his venom for Jews is part of the sickening rise in antisemitism and attacks against believers,” he said. “But we will protect every American.”
Officials credited local and federal authorities with preventing what could have been a large-scale act of violence.
