Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

September 5, 2008 8:13:33 PM CDT


Feds: Man denied liquor license planned Super Bowl gunfire, changed mind in parking lot

By CHRIS KAHN | Associated Press | Feb 8, 08 1:11 AM CST

A would-be bar owner angry at being denied a liquor license threatened to shoot people at the Super Bowl and drove to within sight of the stadium with a rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition before changing his mind, federal authorities said.

Kurt William Havelock, who ultimately turned himself in, had vowed to "shed the blood of the innocent" in a manifesto mailed Sunday to media outlets, according to court documents. "No one destroys my dream," he wrote.

The documents say he was armed with an AR-15 assault-style rifle Sunday when he reached a parking lot near University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, where pre-game activities for the NFL football championship game were happening.

"He waited about a minute and decided he couldn't do this," FBI agent Philip Thorlin testified at a detention hearing for Havelock on Tuesday.

Havelock's father testified that his son then called his fiancee and met his parents at his condominium in Tempe, like Glendale a Phoenix suburb.

"He was very upset; he was sobbing hysterically," Frank Havelock said. "He said, 'I've done something terribly, terribly wrong.'"

Kurt Havelock, 35, was charged Monday with mailing threatening communications. He is being held without bail, and additional hearings have yet to be scheduled.

Havelock's lawyer, Jeffrey Allen Williams, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Federal authorities say Havelock was upset over being denied a liquor license.

A few months ago, Tempe officials denied Havelock's application for a liquor license for a Halloween-themed bar called The Haunted Castle, city spokeswoman Shelley Hearn said.

Tempe officials never recommended the license to the state liquor board, Hearn said.

"There were some neighbors who came forward and said it wasn't the right business for their part of Tempe," she said. "They'd heard he wanted to call his place 'Drunkenstein's.'"

The FBI said in the complaint that Havelock had planned to attack Super Bowl fans at the stadium in what he called an "econopolitical confrontation."

"I will not be bullied by the financial institutions and their puppet politicians," Havelock wrote in the eight-page manifesto, according to the complaint.

"I will test the theory that bullets speak louder than words. Perhaps the blood of the inculpable will cause a paradigm shift. ... Someone has to start the revolution but no one wants to be first."

Authorities said in the complaint that Havelock first thought of targeting a shopping center in north Phoenix before planning to attack the Super Bowl.

"How many dollars will you lose? And all because you took my right to own a business from me," the manifesto said.

  • Print

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Today's Most Popular



Other Top Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »