VENICE, FL — A 19-year-old Venice man was arrested after investigators discovered a plan to conduct a mass shooting and take hostages at a local church, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
Giovanni Pimienta was arrested on charges of written threats to kill, threats to bomb or conduct a mass shooting, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony, according to FDLE.
The investigation began after an FDLE agent received information through the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force about a person communicating online about obtaining weapons and conducting a mass shooting, while also glorifying previous mass shootings, the agency said.
Investigators later identified the person as Pimienta.
According to FDLE, investigators found an AI-produced video supporting the alleged plan, as well as a manifesto published on social media.
That 61-page manifesto was allegedly written by the AI chat bot Grok, WFLA reported.
The manifesto included "personal reflections, ideological arguments, calls for social collapse, praise of violence, and promotion of white supremacists, antisemitic, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, accelerationist viewpoints, and praising the actions of Caleb Vasquez, who perpetrated a deadly attack against the Islamic Center of San Diego," the arrest report said, according to WFLA.
Pimienta also posted a video of him and a co-conspirator dancing in front of a South Carolina mosque and threatened to buy an AR-15 to "shoot up a mosque," the report said.
On Aug. 7, FDLE special agents, crime intelligence and forensic analysts, and the agency's Special Operations Team executed a search warrant and seized a handgun and multiple electronic devices, officials said.
The investigation revealed that Pimienta had a grievance against a local church and was allegedly planning to use the handgun to conduct a mass shooting and take hostages, according to FDLE.
"The swift and thorough investigative efforts of our FDLE team dismantled [Pimienta's] plan to harm our community," FDLE Special Agent in Charge Eli Lawson said in a statement. "I commend our special agents, crime intelligence analysts, forensic analysts and Special Operations Team for working cohesively to investigate and arrest Pimienta to prevent his plan from coming to fruition."
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, Venice Police Department and FBI assisted FDLE with the investigation.
The Office of the State Attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit is prosecuting the case.
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