Niceville Police Chief: We Stopped A Mass Shooting

In Brief:

🚓 Niceville Police arrested a man during a traffic stop after he admitted he planned to kill people, starting with his family.
🔫 Officers found multiple firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and disturbing items at his home.
🛑 The suspect was Baker Acted, faces several charges, and had his weapons temporarily confiscated.

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Niceville Police say they stopped a mass shooting from taking place in city limits.

Police Chief Mark Hayse announced the arrest at Niceville’s August City Council meeting during his monthly report. Mid Bay News made a records request for the arrest affidavit regarding the incident. We were told by Niceville Police’s public records custodian that “the arrest is still open/active” and therefore was not releasable as a public record.

He told the council and the crowd that his officers arrested the suspect, a man, after pulling him over on a traffic stop on a routine patrol.

“The person was just driving real slow and strange,” Hayse recounted to the council.

The chief then told the council that the man told the police officer he that he needed to be taken to jail, “because I’m out here to kill people.”

“He claimed he was hunting people,” Hayse recounted to the council chambers, “He was going to start with his family. They weren’t home, they were out of state – lucky for them.”

Hayse says that the office searched the car and found shotguns, pistols, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and loaded magazines inside the car.

Officers were able to obtain a temporary confiscation of the weapons, including several more found in his home, from the individual who was Baker Acted.

Also inside the home, Hayse reported that they found “things I can’t even describe, that were in the house, on the wall.”

Hayse went on to remind the audience that they should report any suspicious activity to the police department – because, in this case, it saved several lives.

The Chief noted that in addition to the Baker Act, the man faces several charges.

“Chief, I’d like to thank you and your officers and also the community for being ever vigilant and preventing from ever happening. Thank you,” Mayor Pro Tempore Bill Schaetlze said in conclusion.