Man with a a loaded gun arrested at Disneyland

[Jerryp49]

http://abc7.com/news/armed-man-arrested-outside-disneyland-gates/945723/

This happened in July but more details have been released since then. The man claimed to have heard the voices of his dead father and grandfather while riding the Tower of Terror telling him to kill people. He left DCA and pulled out a loaded gun in the Esplanade as people were gathering to watch the fireworks.. An undercover security officer saw him and called APD who arrested him. He had multiple ammunition clips on him.

This Blog is a little whacky but does offer more details about how Disney and APD covered up the incident.

http://disneyhub.blogspot.com/2015/08/more-details-emerge-about-horrifying.html?m=1

 

[wenrob]

That's scary as heck. That blog hardly seems credible though. I got about three sentences in and couldn't take it seriously.

Bag check is a joke. I carry two different camera backpacks and the way they're configured I can't unzip where I keep my camera or it will fall out. I unzip everything else and when I get to the table I set the bag on it then unzip the camera compartment while hanging onto the bag so they don't knock the camera out. 90% of the time they just feel the outside and never open that flap. Have you ever felt camera equipment from the outside? It feels like weapons! On the flipside I saw a CM totally profile a Latino family ahead of me pulling out every sandwich in their little soft cooler, digging through every single pocket in their bag pulling things out and turning them upside down. Meanwhile, the same CM pretty much let my family blow through with barely a glance/pat to the bags with God only knows what in them.

The system needs a total revamp but then it's going to take much longer to get in and people will complain about that. It would also give off the danger vibe which would cancel out the "this is magical place, nothing bad will happen here vibe." I suspect the latter is why they don't do it.

 

[Metalliman98]

Interesting info, but whoever runs that blog obviously has an axe to grind against Disney, and is quite the amateur writer.

Disney probably should improve security, but the blog seems to have unreasonable expectations; it blames Disney for guests fighting in another post. People are gonna be people, and there's nothing Disney can do about that.

 

[Jerryp49]

I agree that the Blog writer is an amateur, but the message is chilling:

At the time of his arrest, Anaheim Police found on him a fully-loaded gun and several loaded ammunition clips ready to reload his gun when it had emptied from what would have been a deadly shooting spree

 

[deetman]

I don't agree that this was "covered up". What good comes from some hack 'news' person sensationalizing this story? And a successful conclusion was reached--the guy was stopped. If there were metal detectors at the entrance, what would stop the guy from standing underneath the DL sign and taking shots at people?

 

[bwang123]

That blog was terrible to read, couldn't make it to the end but skimmed through other parts. Seems mostly made up. All of the reports indicate that plain clothes police noticed a bulge in the person clothes, not pulling out the gun in some dramatic scene.

He is in jail again though:
"Since posting bail after the early July incident, he has been re-arrested on drug charges in South San Francisco."
news source: https://www.facebook.com/ktla5/posts/10153615003489614

 

[wenrob]

That blog was terrible to read, couldn't make it to the end but skimmed through other parts. Seems mostly made up. All of the reports indicate that plain clothes police noticed a bulge in the person clothes, not pulling out the gun in some dramatic scene.

He is in jail again though:
"Since posting bail after the early July incident, he has been re-arrested on drug charges in South San Francisco."
news source: https://www.facebook.com/ktla5/posts/10153615003489614

"Conspiracy Theorist" was what came to mind from the little bit I read.

 

[BostonJP]

The most alarming parts of the blog (about the potential of an incident of mass violence) include no citations whatsoever. In fact one news story addresses the very serious allegations, dismissed by APD:

Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt on Wednesday said he was not aware of such plans, cautioning he could not go into detail about the case.
“We’re not aware of there being any plan to endanger or harm anyone at this point,” Wyatt said. “Obviously there are … certain things … we can’t reveal because there is a criminal prosecution that’s underway.” (SOURCE)

If the police averted a mass shooting they'd probably be willing to to take some credit for doing so.

 

[MillauFr]

Some nut case sneaking into the parks with a loaded gun probably does not rank in the top ten for threats Disney security is concerned with. The bag check like the security lines at the airport can help reduce threats but it not the primary method used to eliminate a terrorist attack at the parks. I would guess that a high profile target like Disney has plenty of help from the NSA, CIA, etc. working to help keep us safe.

 

[hootey]

This just proves that you have to be aware of who and what is going on around you at all times. Seven or eight years ago at DL, the father-n-law and I walked from Toon Town to Mainstreet USA to Downtown Disney to meet other family members for lunch. After being seated for lunch I simply mentioned I wondered who the VIPs were at DL. He asked what I was talking about? It is simple I said, there were twelve Police officers in full BDU uniforms, four plain clothes cops that I saw, an executive helicopter flew over the park and landed, and a marked police helicopter has slowly circled the park four or five times from about a mile out. That was just the ones I witnessed and heard. There has to be some VIPs here to rate all the cops and the helicopters. My father-n-law said he had not seen any police officers or helicopters, I must be imagining things. He had not seen the numerous police officers in uniform or the noisy helicopters. He missed all of them. The next mornings news program on the tv had a story about a head of state and family from somewhere had been treated to a day of site seeing and few hours at DL the day before while in southern California. The FIL just laughed and said he hadn't seen a thing the day before, the news didn't know what they were talking about! He missed all of it!

 

[Drusilla99]

I was at the parks on July 9th and left dca as the fireworks began...never noticed anything happening. I'm sure these things are handled as quickly & quietly as possible. Should security at the gates be stepped up? probably, but people always find a way...glad to know the plain clothes security/police are so aware of what's going on.

 

[VandVsmama]

The blogger's "articles" are not very well constructed and are hard to read. It's apparent from some of his other posts that he's not a Disney fan. To each his own, though!

My own personal opinion is that security at Disney parks is better than at your average American airport. Consider this...how many times have we all read posts here on the DISboards of park guests talking about stuff like this...

• a CM walks over to a guest and gives her an "honorary citizen of Disneyland" button because he saw the guest do something really nice for somebody else.
• a family is strolling through a store and suddenly discovers that one of their 4 kids has wandered off and the kiddo is nowhere to be found. Before the mom or dad can even go find a CM, several security CMs show up to help & child is found soon after.
• you're greeted a million times a day on that day that you got a Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, I'm Celebrating, or First Visit button.
• every once in awhile, you hear about a guest who became unruly or decided to jump a fence or something and suddenly the guest is surrounded by DL park security and he or she is quickly shuffled backstage.

I could come up with several more examples, but those 3 are just the tip of the iceberg. Disney employees have a lot of situational awareness. Way more than your average TSA agent at a US airport.

 

[hootey]

This just proves that you have to be aware of who and what is going on around you at all times. Seven or eight years ago at DL, the father-n-law and I walked from Toon Town to Mainstreet USA to Downtown Disney to meet other family members for lunch. After being seated for lunch I simply mentioned I wondered who the VIPs were at DL. He asked what I was talking about? It is simple I said, there were twelve Police officers in full BDU uniforms, four plain clothes cops that I saw, an executive helicopter flew over the park and landed, and a marked police helicopter has slowly circled the park four or five times from about a mile out. That was just the ones I witnessed and heard. There has to be some VIPs here to rate all the cops and the helicopters. My father-n-law said he had not seen any police officers or helicopters, I must be imagining things. He had not seen the numerous police officers in uniform or the noisy helicopters. He missed all of them. The next mornings news program on the tv had a story about a head of state and family from somewhere had been treated to a day of site seeing and few hours at DL the day before while in southern California. The FIL just laughed and said he hadn't seen a thing the day before, the news didn't know what they were talking about! He missed all of it!

I posted this to show how some people miss the most obvious things. After many, many trips to DL, I can assure you that DL Security is on top of it's GAME

 

[GeneralTso]

I guess I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Seriously. The "security theater" is a joke.
Poke in my little bag with your chop stick and we're all safe now? My husband could have his cargo shorts FULL of guns and ammo and no one would know.
It's so stupid and unsafe. We rely on the humanity of others around us, that's all we have. The illusion of safety is a very bad thing.

 

[bwang123]

I guess I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Seriously. The "security theater" is a joke.
Poke in my little bag with your chop stick and we're all safe now? My husband could have his cargo shorts FULL of guns and ammo and no one would know.
It's so stupid and unsafe. We rely on the humanity of others around us, that's all we have. The illusion of safety is a very bad thing.

that's how they found this guy. a plain closed cop saw a bulge and took action. maybe it doesn't happen more often because they have top notch security who stops it before it happens. i've read stories about WDW where someone left a backpack in a park and dogs and security people identify and fix the issue before most guests even notice. maybe the illusion is having more security but making it seem less.

 

[Davids-Coco]

Wow... we were there. They were very quiet. It is very clear something had happened but what was unclear. It was handled very quickly. Now I know what happened though and am FREAKED. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

 

[All American]

My understanding is that the bag check is simply one, if not the first, line of defense. It slows the crowd so that security in plain, everyday clothes can watch for suspicious behavior of people as they go through the line. I don't know if that's true or not and can't remember where I read it. I just thought I'd throw that out there for the sake of the discussion and to see if anyone else had ever heard that. As for the incident, I'm glad no one was hurt.

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

The blogger's argument doesn't really hold much water when you have the fact that the situation was actually resolved successfully. It sounds to me like Disney security did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Also, it's kind of funny that we are supposed to believe that this is a super-secret cover-up, yet this amateur blogger was able to "uncover" it all for us, even the top-secret report which is clearly marked as not confidential.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

While it is surprising that Disneyland doesn't have metal detectors since a lot of other theme parks do, what they do have is an amazing system of color coded security that I've heard is arguably more sensitive than Homeland Security's color scheme. I've seen many undercover police walking around the promenade and pedestrian entrances and very responsive security guards at Disneyland. I'm sure that as a popular tourist attraction and symbol, Disney has quite a bit of support that we don't even know about. Unfortunately, we live in a world where bad things happen. But, look at it this way. The guy was caught before anything even had a chance of happening. No one got hurt. That's the most important thing to remember.

 

[Comicbookmommy]

The threat of something like this has always scared me. I was looking up Disney security last year and came across a gun owner forum where a bunch of people were talking about wanting to carry their guns into the parks, and asking about security. A couple guys said they regularly carry in guns to the park strapped to their leg, and no one ever checks for them. Made it sound super easy.

I think security should be beefed up big time. However it'll probably take something tragic to happen before they make the changes necessary to ensure guns stay out of Disneyland.