‘Incel’ Accused Of Plotting Mass Shooting Of Women

HILLSBORO, OH — Federal authorities say they’ve thwarted a possible mass shooting in which the suspect said he would “go big” in an attack aimed at women.

Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio, has been indicted by a federal grand jury with one count of attempting to commit a hate crime and one count of illegally possessing a machine gun, the Department of Justice said in a news release.

Genco, a self-described “incel,” plotted to shoot students in sororities at a university of Ohio, the Department of Justice said.

"Incel," short for “involuntary celibate,” refers to people who belong to an online community of predominantly men who harbor anger toward women. They believe that women unjustly deny them the sexual or romantic attention to which they are entitled.

Genco is accused of writing a manifesto that stated he would “slaughter” women “out of hatred, jealousy and revenge,” according to the news release. Police also found a note that stated Greco would “aim big” for a kill count of 3,000 people.

The indictment says Genco purchased tactical gloves, a bulletproof vest, a hoodie bearing the word “revenge,” cargo pants, a bowie knife, a skull face mask, two Glock 17 magazines, a 9 mm Glock 17 clip and a concealed carry holster clip for a Glock in 2019.

During a search of Genco's home in March 2020, police found a gun with a bump stock attached, several loaded magazines, body armor and boxes of ammunition, among other items, according to the indictment.

In one online post, authorities allege, Greco detailed spraying “foids and couples,” “foids” referring to women, with orange juice in a water gun. That’s similar to what Elliot Rodger — another known incel, according to the Department of Justice — did before shooting and killing six people outside a University of California-Santa Barbara sorority house in 2014.

The UC-Santa Barbara shooting is one of a number of deadly attacks that have been linked to the incel movement, according to a 2020 foreign policy essay posted on the Lawfare blog.

“The incel ideology is real — and lethal,” essay authors wrote, pointing to the deadliest incel-linked attack, a 2018 incident in Toronto in which 10 pedestrians were killed after getting rammed by a car.

Attacks connected to the incel movement have also been reported across the states, perhaps most famously the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting.

In all, nearly 50 people have been killed in the associated attacks, the essay states.