Truck driver Thomas Matthew McVicker was arrested in Indianapolis after the FBI said he made “credible threats to conduct a mass shooting and suicide.” McVicker told a friend in Alabama he intended to conduct a mass shooting at a Memphis church and then requested the days off from his employer, telling the employer he intended to head to Memphis for time off.
Additional details from the Associated Press:
Earlier this month, McVicker's friend in southern Alabama told a Florida FBI agent that McVicker has been considering "shooting a church up" or killing people on the street.
Later, in a telephone call, the friend said McVicker told her the church shooting would happen when he was in Memphis on Thursday and that he "intended to take his knife and slit the pastor's throat."
His mother told the FBI he is a drug user who is being treated for mental illness, alleging he “owned a Ruger P90 handgun and sometimes uses cocaine and methamphetamine. She also said her son is being treated for schizophrenia.”
Another Associated Press report contains details of his struggles, as outlined by a friend in Alabama.
The friend asked McVicker why he wanted to kill innocent people, and he said "they put spiritual snakes and spiders in my bed at night," the FBI agent wrote. "I've only seen them a couple of times but they take form and I can feel them crawling on me and under me," the affidavit states.
The FBI did not provide additional details about motive, McVicker’s potential target, or the particulars of his arrest.