A self-described incel admitted in federal court to wanting to carry out a mass murder at Ohio State University with his writings intimating that he hoped to kill 3,000 people.
Tres Genco, 22, from Hillsboro, Ohio, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to commit a hate crime, which, because his stated plot involved attempts to kill, carries a possible life sentence, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio said in a news release.
Shortened from “involuntary celibate”, the term incel has come to describe a loose movement of mostly men online who harbour anger and resentment towards women because they believe they’re unable carry out a romantic or sexual relationships with the opposite gender.
The movement, though not explicitly violent, has been incited by several mass killers in the US and Canada in recent years, including the Toronto van attack driver, Alek Minassian, who rammed down and killed 11 people in 2018.
The US Attorney’s Office said in a news release announcing the plea that the 22-year-old self-identified with the online subculture, while noting that the group is known to “advocate violence in support of their belief that women unjustly deny them sexual or romantic attention”.
Genco was first brought on the radar of local authorities in March 2020. Police from the Highland County Sheriff’s Department were called to the 22-year-old’s home after they’d received a report that he’d barricaded himself in his room with a firearm and, the unidentified person calling added, was believed to be either a threat to himself or others.
When police arrived at the Hillsboro home, located about 57 miles east of Cincinnati, and convinced the young man to surrender, they found he was in possession of an AR-15-style rifle with a bump-stock and Glock pistol, which had been altered so that it could fire fully automatically.
That firearm had no serial number. Prosecutors said that as part of the plea that they’d arranged with Genco, he admitted that the firearms uncovered that day had been the ones he planned to use to carry out his murderous plot, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
When Genco was arrested in July 2021, he was also charged with unlawful possession of a machine-gun, the prosecutor’s office said.
In a so-called manifesto penned by the self-described incel, among other writings uncovered by authorities that dated back years, he wrote how the training he planned to carry out with the US Army would help prepare him to carry out his plot to kill women. He called it a “reality” that he would “cherish” and “fantasize at the opportunity of having”.
The 22-year-old also went on to describe “death” as “the great equalizer” and noted that he intended to kill women out of “hatred, jealousy, and revenge”.
Agents also uncovered internet searches and documents that detailed Genco’s intent to carry out a mass killing, such as “searches for topics including ‘planning a shooting crime’ and ‘when does preparing for a crime become an attempt?’”. Within the court documents, it was also described how his planned site of the mass shooting, Ohio State University, was a place that he often carried out recon missions at, surveilling the premises and that he also frequently researched sororities in the area.
Genco did begin basic Army training in Georgia, which he attended from August through December 2019, but he was later discharged for “entry-level performance and conduct,” officials reported.
In addition to all the aforementioned details laid out by Genco and collected by agents after they confronted him in March 2020 – just two months before he planned to carry out his deadly assault at the university – officials also said that he’d made direct comparisons to incel hero Elliot Rodger.
Rodger, who was also invoked by Minassian in a Facebook post ahead of his violent rampage in Toronto, killed six people and injured 14 near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus.
Before the 22-year-old turned the gun on himself, he posted a video on YouTube and distributed a 141-page document via email where he described his murderous plot as a “Day of Retribution.” He defended the plot by saying he’d been left with “no choice but to exact revenge on the society” that had “denied” him sex and love.
In their filing, prosecutors acknowledged the pile of evidence against Genco and his incendiary comments about women, alleging that it stood as proof that he’d “formulated a plot to kill women and intended to carry it out”.
“Hate has no place in our country – including gender-based hate – and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously prosecute any such conduct,” US Attorney Kenneth Parker said in a statement, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The prosecutor’s office has been contacted by The Independent for comment. The lawyer representing Genco couldn’t be reached for comment.
