Two men who drove from Iowa to Boston for the Pokémon World Championships were arrested Friday after seemingly threatening violence over social media against attendees of the event, according to the Boston Police Department.
Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27, were arrested on several firearm-related charges. The official Pokémon site lists Kevin Norton and a James Stumbo, both from the U.S., as invitees in the “masters division” of the world championships of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Private security at the Hynes Convention Center, where the Championships were taking place, were also aware of the threats and stopped the two men when they attempted to enter on Thursday. Police detectives seized their car and upon delivery of a search warrant on Friday found within a 12 gauge shotgun, an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. They then arrested Norton and Stumbo that afternoon in Saugus, Massachusetts. The pair will be arraigned in Boston on Monday. The police released the above photo of the weapons confiscated from the car.
Although the extent of Norton and Stumbo’s threats is unclear, we discovered a post Stumbo had made on a Facebook group featuring an image of the guns seen in the Boston PD photo:
The rest of Stumbo’s posts in the Facebook group appear to be normal messages about playing Pokémon.
Stumbo claimed to police that the social media posting was taken out of context, according to the police report as cited by The Daily Beast.
Pokémon card game expert Josh “Squeaky” Marking, who has interviewed Stumbo in the past, Kotaku he’d known the Pokemon player to a fairly reserved guy. “Every time I did an interview with him he always seemed like a chill person but he is also the type to be sarcastic and joke around.” He described Stumbo as “a self proclaimed gun enthusiast” and believed it was possible this was all a big joke. He said he hadn’t realised Stumbo and Norton were found to have guns with them in Boston until being shown a photo by Kotaku.
Said The Pokémon Company International in a statement: “Prior to the event this weekend, our community of players made us aware of a security issue. We gathered information and gave it as soon as possible to the authorities at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center who acted swiftly and spearheaded communication with the Boston Police Department. Due to quick action, the potential threat was resolved. The Pokémon Company International takes the safety of our fans seriously and will continue to ensure proper security measures are a priority.”
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Comments
19 responses to “Boston Police Arrest Two Pokemon Players After Apparent Gun Threat Against World Championships”
Kevin?! So Jessie is still on the loose?
They didn’t catch them all
That’s right!
At a Pokemon event, of all places…
You don’t joke about this shit. It’s like hearing idiots at the airport joking about bombs. You just don’t do it.
Wonder if there was any real intent? Taking the guns with them was a dumb move regardless – they will get done on that alone.
These days it doesn’t really matter, you just don’t go there lol
There is no such thing as “out of context” when you have that much firepower with you.
Seeing the phrase “taken out of context” made me think of Bender when he was talking to Fry and Morgan about their relationship, which Bender witnessed with his own two telescopic eyes:
Morgan: Mr. Bender, about last night: That was just a… a misunderstanding.
Bender: Oh, you didn’t understand? Well let me explain. You [points to Fry] were having sex with you [points to Morgan].
In other words, when you post a photo of a gun and the phrase “Boston, here we come”, there’s two ways you can look at it — someone is excited to go to Boston, and is taking a photo of their car, on which they’ve accidentally left some guns and didn’t pick up on the fact that these firearms were filling up most of the frame, until many days after. Or you’re going to Boston WITH your guns, and going to go Hotline Miami on people.
Depending on who argues your case, either the first is “the truth”, or the second is.
the only thing that crops into my mind is they of have also been intending to go hunting after the tornament, but then again i dont know if boston has any hunting grounds close near the city
One of the first things you get taught when getting a firearms licence in Australia is “for the love of god don’t tell anyone about or show anyone your guns”. Technically it’s completely legal to carry, say, your hunting rifle into a cafe if you’re on the way to hunting, but the police are gonna be called and they are gonna be annoyed at you. Discretion is vital when it comes to firearms in public… but I guess discretion isn’t really an American trait.
Because those look like the kind of guns to joke around with. ‘Context’ is not going to help you, buddy.
Seriously… how dumb are criminals these days, posting on facebook that you are planning a crime is the equivalent of standing out the front of a bank and yelling at the top of your voice that you are planning to rob it.
Nice try Team Rocket.
What a pair of dumbshits. If they were planning on a shooting, they’re mentally retarded. If it was just a joke, they have an impaired sense of humour… and are mentally retarded.
wtf why would anyone need a full on assault rifle to defend themselves?
Its for when the government comes to take away their rights. Probably. Who can tell where the extreme gun nuts are concerned?
In all likelihood they were planning to do something perfectly sane and gun related while they were there (range shooting or hunting or something), and were just extremely stupid about the way they advertised it. Just weird American gun culture in action again.
Have you seen the price of the Defence Rifles?
Police used ARREST!
It was super effective.