KCBS Fired Nuclear Plant Employee Arrested For Threats
Weapons Found In Man's Storage Unit
Authorities Say He Wanted Revenge For Lost Job
(SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif.) (AP) Jan. 9, 2002 3:02 pm
A man who allegedly threatened to kill former co-workers after he was fired from
a nuclear power plant was in custody Wednesday after authorities found a weapons
cache that included a rocket launcher, tear gas and hand grenades.
Authorities believe that David Reza, 43, wanted revenge for losing his job as a
mechanic at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and was not part of a
terrorist plot.
"I believe he acted as an individual, as a disgruntled employee," said Jim
Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Reza (pictured, right) was arrested late Tuesday and booked for investigation of
terrorist threats. He was being held in Orange County Men's Central Jail in
Santa Ana.
In a telephone interview from the jail, Reza told the Orange County Register he
did not threaten anyone. He said he was being picked on because he is a Native
American and because of an ongoing disability dispute with Southern California
Edison, which runs the nuclear power plant 65 miles south of Los Angeles.
"I was just upset and told this guy...'do I have to come over there and put my
foot in your (expletive deleted) to get them moving," he said.
Reza said the guns found by deputies are antiques that he has been collecting
since he was a kid.
"The police took a bunch of antiques," Reza's live-in girlfriend, Kristi
Mattauch, told the Associated Press. "Did they tell you most of it was from the
18th century? Did they tell you most of it was BB guns?"
"I've called the NRA. This is just ridiculous. He didn't do anything wrong," she
said.
Sheriff's officials did not immediately return a call for comment about the
weapons.
Deputies served search warrants at the man's Laguna Niguel home and a storage
unit in nearby San Juan Capistrano, finding 54 weapons at the house and more
than 200 in the storage locker.
The locker also contained 4,000 to 5,000 rounds of ammunition and four inert
hand grenades lying next to a container of explosive powder.
Some of the weapons were illegal to possess, authorities said.
"We take every threat serious, especially those from former employees of a
nuclear power plant," Amormino said. "Is the person capable of carrying out the
threat? Considering we found a cache of weapons and ammunition, we think the
answer is yes."
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