After several 911 calls from alarmed motorists who saw him doing 112 mph on the Maine Turnpike in a Ford Mustang with the hazard lights flashing, Timothy Courtois, 49, was arrested Sunday night by state police in Biddeford, Maine with an unusual arsenal in his car. Police found an AK-47 assault rifle, four handguns and several boxes of ammunition.
From the Bangor Daily News:
Also in Courtois’ car, police found newspaper clippings about the mass shooting Friday during a showing of the same Batman movie at a Colorado movie theater, according to McCausland.
Courtois told police he had attended the Batman movie at the Cinemagic Theater in Saco on Saturday night with a loaded gun in his backpack and that he was on his way Sunday to Derry, N.H., where he planned to shoot a former employer, McCausland said.
“He didn’t speak to any intent to harm people [at the theater], but I’m sure a lot of this is going to continue to come out” as agencies including the state police, FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives continue their investigations, Maine State Police Lt. Kevin Donovan said Monday.
“We don’t know what his true intentions were” when he brought the gun to the theater, and investigators are trying to determine his reasons for doing so and for having a large collection of firearms, McCausland said.
Disturbing enough, of course, but there’s more:
A search of Courtois’ home at 344 Elm St. in Biddeford after his arrest uncovered more guns, including a machine gun, rifles, handguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Courtois made his initial court appearance in Springvale District Court on charges of having a concealed weapon and criminal speeding at 1 p.m. Monday by video from York County Jail, according to a court clerk.
His bail is set at $50,000 cash or $150,000 real estate, with provisions that he not use or possess alcohol, drugs or dangerous weapons. He also must submit to random searches and testing under the bail conditions.
Wait a minute, under THESE circumstances, the guy with a massive cache of weapons, who spoke to police of the intent to kill someone when the police picked him up for doing double the speed limit with an assault rifle in his car, plus with what happened in Colorado and the whole Batman connection here, if this guy makes bail, THIS GUY, they’re just going to let him go?
Apparently so. Courtois is scheduled to appear in York District Court at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 23.
How would you like to be this dude’s neighbor? And I wonder if the cops bothered to call his former boss to suggest the immediate purchase of a flack jacket? WTF?
Via Joe.My.God.