UPDATE, NOV. 6, 5:24 P.M.: David Kenneth Smith could get up to three years in state prison if he is convicted of felony criminal threats, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
In addition to posing in YouTube vidoes holding firearm and discussing the possibility of carrying out an attack at Soka University, the 39-year-old praises the perpetrators of recent mass shootings, the OCDA alleges.
ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 6, 11:14 A.M.: A 40– 39-year-old man is scheduled to be arraigned today for allegedly threatening a Soka University staff member “through bizarre email exchanges and a YouTube channel rant,” according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies received a report around 3 p.m. Wednesday that David Kenneth Smith was engaged in an email exchange with an unnamed instructor, who had apparently participated in disciplinary action against the Los Angeles resident when he attended the Aliso Viejo university in 2008, states an OCSD advisory.
“The suspect’s frustration in the email correspondence” concerning discipline over marijuana use “escalated until he finally emailed the staff member a link to a YouTube video that showed him sitting with a semi-automatic pistol on his chest talking about the university,” deputies say.
Smith’s YouTube channel,” OCSD adds, “included multiple videos recorded in recent days, in which the suspect talked about his desire to engage in a ‘killing spree.’ In some of the videos, the suspect is seen holding a firearm.”
The report to OCSD spurred the deployment of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center, which worked on the case in concert with sheriff’s investigators, according to the advisory.
Less than 48 hours later, on Thursday, OCSD personnel took Smith into custody and recovered nine loaded firearms, all of which were registered to him and have now been confiscated, deputies say.
“Extensive resources were dedicated to the case to ensure the suspect did not have the opportunity to carry out his stated plans,” reads the advisory. “Investigators believed the suspect’s threats were credible and an attack possible.”
Smith was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of criminal threats and held on $1 million bail heading into today’s scheduled court appearance.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.