Hotel Worker Sentenced For Threatening Mass Shooting

LONG BEACH, CA — A former hotel worker was sentenced Monday to three years and eight months in state prison for threatening to shoot up the hotel he worked at near the Long Beach Airport, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced.

Rodolfo Montoya, 37, of Huntington Beach, pleaded no contest earlier this month to two felony counts of criminal threats, Deputy District Attorney Maren Dermody said.

On August 19, 2019, Montoya, who was an employee at a restaurant in the Marriott Hotel, threatened a co-worker and threatened to commit a shooting at the hotel, the prosecutor said. Police said they found an arsenal of weapons at his home.

"He was an employee at the hotel, and he was upset about some recent workplace activity having to do with H.R.," Long Beach police Chief Robert Luna told reporters at a news conference announcing the arrest.

Luna said Montoya allegedly spoke to a fellow employee and threatened "that he was going to shoot up fellow employees and people coming into the hotel."

That employee relayed the information to the hotel's general manager, who then called Long Beach police.

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia praised LBPD's work and the courage of the hotel employee who reported the alleged threat.

"These types of tragedies continue to occur across the country," Garcia said. "This incident was a credible threat to our city, which easily could have resulted in a similar tragedy. However, thanks to both the actions taken by the employee who reported this threat and the exceptional work of our police department, thankfully it was not."

That was the second time in 2019 a threat of a mass slaying was stopped prematurely in Long Beach. In April 2019, a white nationalist rally scheduled at Bluff Park was the target of a terrorist attack involving bombs, but federal authorities disrupted the plot before it came to fruition.

The case was investigated by the Long Beach Police Department.

Related: Hotel Worker Arrested For Alleged Threat Of Mass Shooting

City News Service contributed to this post