Former U.S. Marine Indicted in Planned Lubbock Mass Shooting Case

A former U.S. Marine has accepted a plea deal in a case where he’s accused of planning a mass shooting at a Lubbock hotel. According to KAMC News and other sources, William Patrick Williams was on the verge of going through with a plan to use multiple weapons to shoot up a local hotel but changed his mind at the last second.

Just 19-years-old at the time, Williams had planned to carry out the mass shooting on July 13, 2019. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the North District of Texas, Williams had rented out a hotel room and inside he had stored an AK-47, 17 magazines worth of ammunition, and various knives. Authorities say he had also bought an assortment of black clothing, including a trench coat and tactical gloves.

The Lubbock-Avalanche Journal reports that Williams had planned the shooting out of anger that he had been honorably discharged from the Marine Corps on grounds that he suffered from mental illness and severe depression and anxiety. According to documents obtained by the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal, Williams had planned to use the mass shooting as an opportunity to commit suicide by cop.

On July 11, 2019, two days before the shooting was planned to be carried out, Williams reportedly purchased weapons and ammunition from the Cabela’s location in Lubbock, including an AK-47. Because Williams had been honorably discharged by the military and not dishonorably discharged, he was not barred from purchasing weapons. Williams’ struggle with depression was also not enough to disqualify him.

However, investigators would later discover that Williams had lied on the firearms transaction form and listed the wrong address. On July 13, 2019, Williams was ready to carry out his plan, but for reasons that are not entirely clear, he decided to call his grandmother and tell her about everything. She was somehow able to convince him to give up on the plan and later that day drove him to Covenant Hospital for mental treatment.

Williams also called local authorities and told them about his plan for a mass shooting and even directed them to the hotel room where he stored all his weapons and gear. After a brief hospitalization, Williams was arrested by federal authorities on August 1, 2019 and charged with making false statements to a federally-licensed firearms dealer. He accepted a plea deal on October 1, 2020, and will be sentenced at a later date to no more than 5 years in prison.