A Michigan man with a fixation on mass murderers was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison after federal authorities said he compiled an arsenal of weapons and planned his own hate-fueled attack on a political party headquarters and bar.
Mack Davis, 23, of Owosso had pleaded guilty in December to committing a hate crime by attempting to carry out a mass killing, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
Since at least July 2023, Davis had been using the internet to research, post about and pay tribute to mass killers, the DOJ said. He also wrote about killers in journals and on other items in his home.
Also around that time, he began to plot his own mass killing, including creating detailed lists of weapons and tactical gear he owned or intended to acquire. By June 2024, he had amassed an arsenal that included two firearms, magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow and arrows, bomb-making materials, smoke grenades, tactical gear and knives, authorities said.
In his writings, Davis had expressed his “hate for this world and for the people in it, all people, I hate you all the same,” according to court documents. However, he also had possessions and writings that indicated extreme hostility toward certain groups, specifically gays and Jews.
Davis had posted selfies of himself making a Nazi salute and holding a copy of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kamph” online. He also possessed an Israeli flag that he had defiled with a swastika and antisemitic messages like “Kill Jews,” according to the DOJ.
He had inscribed one of his knives with a violent message including an anti-gay slur. Authorities said that in planning his attack, he had targeted a particular political party headquarters and bar because he believed they would be populated by gay people.
“Davis devised wicked plans. He said he would kill ‘anyone and anything’ that crossed his path and planned to attack homosexuals,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon said in a statement. “And his venom for Jews is part of the sickening rise in antisemitism and attacks against believers.”
Davis’ plot was foiled in June 2024 after he was arrested by Owosso police for allegedly firing about 60 shots into several neighbors’ properties. That happened soon after he vandalized two cars belonging to his neighbors, who he knew were gay, including spray painting an anti-gay slur on one of the vehicles, authorities said.
“There is no room for targeted hate crimes against any citizen on American soil, including in our community of Owosso,” said Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office.
The DOJ said that because Davis’ hate crime involved an attempt to kill, he could have received up to a life sentence.
His attorneys, Bryan J. Sherer and Jaelle Richardson, didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan man who planned mass killing of gays sentenced
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
