California police arrest man plotting to conduct 'Las Vegas-style' mass shooting

By Edward Era Barbacena

Authorities in Northern California arrested a 37-year-old man Sunday on suspicion of planning to commit a "Las Vegas-style" mass shooting.

The SWAT Team with the police department in the city of Chico, located about 85 miles north of Sacramento, arrested Dallas Marsh shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday without incident near a Super 8 Motel where he was staying.

The Chico Police Department said in a statement that he has been charged with criminal threats of death/great bodily injury and threats of violence against peace officers.

Additional charges of battery against a peace officer were also applied against Marsh who under police custody threaten to kill officers and their families and beat one of them with a table while being interviewed.

The arrest follows an investigation by the local department's Violence Suppression Unit that uncovered evidence that Marsh was making criminal threats to kill specific individuals, including law enforcement officers, and was planning a mass shooting similar to the one carried out by Stephen Paddock on Oct. 1, 2017, when he killed 60 people among a crowd attending a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.

From a 32nd floor hotel room that overlooked the strip, Paddock fired hundreds of bullets that also left more than 500 injured.

Specifics of the planned attack and its intended targets were not released, but police said the Violence Suppression Unit has obtained evidence of Marsh's intent to carry out the mass shooting.