CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — New details have come to light as authorities share how they stopped a terroristic plot against the Corpus Christi Police Department.
According to an affidavit, an informant tipped off the FBI after Seth, “Andrea” Gregori texted them that they were in possession of an AR-15 platform pistol and wanted to kill Corpus Christi Police Department Officers.
The informant told authorities that they had exchanged six months of messages with Gregori, showing Gregori wished to carry out a “Dallas-style” attack on CCPD.
Screenshots of those messages reportedly confirmed those allegations of a potential threat to police:
“But to answer your question, yes I’ve planned on shooting and killing cops as much as I could like Micah planned it for years,” Gregori reportedly texted. Micah refers to Micah Xavier Johnson, who ambushed the Dallas Police Department on July 7, 2016, killing five officers and injuring nine.
Gregori reportedly followed up one of those messages on Feb. 4 or Feb. 5 with a photo showing the side of an AR receiver.
The informant provided police with 71 pages of text messages, evidence it said showed Gregori’s clear planning, intent, and steps Gregori would take to ambush and kill police officers in Corpus Christi.
Those messages include 19 images from the Dallas crime scene and of Micah Xavier Johnson.
They also show three images Gregori reportedly took in secret while “stalking” local police officers. Gregori apparently bragged to this person about being friendly to many officers and “fooling them” to gain their trust so they don’t see the offender as a threat.
The affidavit states a senior officer who works security at Mother Theresa’s Shelter told investigating officers that he was familiar with Gregori, saying Gregori never caused any problems and was always respectful to officers.
When asked what he planned to do, Gregori reportedly told the informant that he would be posted downtown “like Micah” because it “looked like Dallas.”
‘Targeting ‘White’ Cops’
According to the arrest affidavit, Gregori planned to avoid harming innocent bystanders, saying he was a sharpshooter, and planned on only targeting cops. Gregori clarified several times throughout the messages that he only wanted to target CCPD, stating further that he only wished to target “white” cops,” leaving the “Black and Mexican cops alone”
Gregori is being held in the Nueces County Jail on charges of criminal trespassing and making terroristic threat against the Corpus Christi police.
3NEWS editorial note on gender of suspect: There is confusion over the gender of Seth Andrea Gregori. The FBI and CCPD listed Gregori as a male. Gregori’s booking information lists the gender as female. The name Andrea is commonly a female name in the United States, but it can be a typically male name in Italy, and Gregori is often an Italian surname. 3NEWS initially chose to use he/him pronouns as we went with what the FBI and CCPD were using. Moving forward, we will use they/them pronouns until we get better guidance. Prior posts and stories will remain unchanged.
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