Mayor: 'Heavily armed' man arrested going to LA gay pride event

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 12 (UPI) -- A "heavily armed" man who said he was headed to the Los Angeles Pride festival was arrested in Santa Monica, Calif., LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

Garcetti said the suspect was arrested Sunday after a tip from a citizen.

Police were called about man who was knocking on doors and "loitering in the area," Santa Monica Police spokesman Saul Rodriguez said.

Police encountered a man who said he waiting for a friend. Upon inspection of the man's white Acura with Indiana plates, they found weapons that included one assault rifle, ammunition and tennerite, which could be used to make a pipe bomb.

The told police he was in town for the pride event in West Hollywood this weekend.

Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said they are still trying to determine exactly what were the intentions of suspect James Wesley Howell of Indiana, who held the weapons and ammunition in his car.

But Lt. Saul Rodriguez said later that a tweet indicating the 20-year-old man told an officer he wanted "to harm gay pride event," was a mistake. The suspect did tell investigators he was going to the festival but said nothing about his intentions, Rodriguez said.

Howell's friend Joseph Greeson, 18, said Howell was bisexual and didn't harbor any ill will toward gays or lesbians.

Indiana court records indicated Howell was charged in October 2015 with intimidation and felony pointing a firearm at another person. He also plead guilty on April 19 to misdemeanor intimidation, and prosecutors dropped the charge of pointing a firearm. He was sentenced to a year in state prison and given probation and had to forfeit all weapons during his term of probation.

Officials were beefing up security at the gay pride event, which started at 10:45 a.m.

The arrest has no connection to the Orlando nightclub mass shooting earlier Sunday morning, authorities said.