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Maryland police arrest possible Aurora theater shooting copycat Neil Prescott after threat of mass workplace shootout

By Lena Sullivan / AP 07/27/2012 15:03:00

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Weapons confiscated from Neil Prescott’s home were displayed by the Prince George Police Department.

A possible Colorado copycat billing himself as “a joker” had a lethal arsenal inside his home when he threatened to open fire in his workplace, authorities said Friday.

Neil Prescott was undergoing psychiatric evaluation after phoning in his threat earlier this week to mailroom and softward supplier Pitney Bowes, officials said.

Prescott, of Crofton, Md., was a disgruntled worker nursing a grudge when he dialed the company offices in southern Maryland just days after the Friday shootings in Aurora, Colo., authorities said.

“I am a joker. I’m going to load my guns and blow everybody up,” the man declared, according to The Washington Post.

He was arrested Thursday night, and authorities recovered more than 20 weapons — including assault rifles and handguns — along with more than 400 rounds of ammunition inside his home.

“Guns don’t kill people. I do,” read the T-shirt the suspect was wearing when arrested. The suspect was calm and cooperative when taken into custody, the Post reported.

Prescott’s mention of the word joker invoked images of the carnage inflicted at the suburban Colorado movie theater during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

The shooter there used an assault rifle and other weapons to kill a dozen movie-goers and wound another 58. The suspect in the shootings dyed his hair read and declared that he was Batman’s arch-enemy, the Joker.

Authorities said there was no other indication of any link between the two incidents.

Prescott was identified by a Pitney Bowes spokeswoman as a worker for a company subcontractor. He had not set foot on any company property in four months, the spokeswoman said.

No charges were immediately filed in the case, and it was unclear how the suspect had assembled his arsenal.

Weapons confiscated from Neil Prescott’s home were displayed by the Prince George Police Department.

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