Las Vegas police arrest man who threatened mass shooting at T-Mobile Arena during Stanley Cup Final game

The Las Vegas police arrested a man on Tuesday who threatened a mass shooting at T-Mobile Arena.

An arrest report released on Thursday by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department identified the suspect as a 33-year-old man named Matthew DeSavio, had a history of mental illness and arrests “that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, harassed or fearful for their immediate safety.” The report didn’t specify whether or not DeSavio had any weapons.

DeSavio had sent several text messages, phone calls, and social media posts on Tuesday threatening to “shoot up” T-Mobile Arena during the game in a massacre that would rival the October 2017 mass shooting on the Strip. That shooting is the deadliest in modern American history, leaving 60 dead and hundreds more injured.

The arrest came just four hours before the Vegas Golden Knights were set to play the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Golden Knights ended up winning the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history with a 9-3 win over the Panthers, defeating them in five games in the Final.

At least three people contacted the police about the suspect before his arrest on Tuesday, including an acquaintance from grade school that had been stalked by DeSavio for almost a decade and a relative with an active restraining order against DeSavio.

Police had arrested DeSavio at the workplace of the 911 caller who told police he had been harassing her for almost a decade. A transcript of a call from DeSavio in the arrest report identified him saying to the woman, “No more nice man. I’m headed to your office now. I’m almost there.”

DeSavio’s arrests in Las Vegas date back to 2014 on numerous charges that include domestic battery and stalking. He was also recently arrested in October 2022 for threatening an act of terrorism or mass destruction, the same charge he’s been placed with for his arrest on Tuesday. He’s also received a felony charge with aggravated stalking and and a gross misdemeanor charge for allegedly violating a restraining order against his relative.

DeSavio has not been formally charged yet and is scheduled to appear in court next week.