Mass Shooting Averted? Houston Police Arrest Man With Arsenal In Room Overlooking NYE Party

Houston police arrested a man who allegedly had stashed a cache of weapons and ammo on the 28th floor of the city’s Hyatt Regency hotel early Sunday. His room overlooked a planned New Year’s Celebration in Houston’s downtown expected to draw large crowds, according to local reports.

The man, who had not yet been identified by police, was initially going to be arrested for disorderly conduct after he drunkenly refused to leave the hotel’s bar, according to the Houston Chronicle. After hotel security called police, authorities went to the man’s room to gather his belongings. That’s where they found an AR-15, a shotgun and a handgun, as well as “many rounds of ammunition,” the paper reported.

Police had not yet interviewed the man, and had not yet determined why he had an arsenal in his hotel room. Police towed his truck, which had paper license plates, according to Houston KPRC2 reporter Jacob Rascon.

The Hyatt Houston is in the heart of the city, and the man’s room reportedly overlooked a planned New Years Eve celebration which was advertised on the hotel’s website.

“Paint the town red, drink champagne and dance the night away in the heart of downtown!” the marketing copy for the party said. Tickets for the event were still available Sunday morning.

While the man’s intentions were not yet known, Twitter users were quick to draw parallels between the arsenal’s location high above planned festivities and the Las Vegas mass shooting that injured more than 500 concertgoers and killed nearly 60 people in October.

That mass shooting, the worst in modern U.S. history, was committed by Stephen Paddock, 64, who fired more than a thousand rounds at concert goers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. After committing the massacre, Paddock was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities are still trying to determine Paddock’s motive.