Cops: 'Joker' threatens to shoot up business

PALMER PARK, Md. -- A Maryland man who called himself "a joker" and had an arsenal of semiautomatic rifles threatened to shoot up the business from which he was being fired and was wearing a T-shirt that read "Guns don't kill people. I do," when first confronted by officers, police said Friday.

The man, identified in a search warrant as Neil E. Prescott, 28, told a supervisor at software and mailroom supplier Pitney Bowes that "I'm a joker and I'm gonna load my guns and blow everybody up," and that he wanted to see the supervisor's "brain splatter all over the sidewalk," according to police officials and a search warrant.

The threats were made twice in separate phone calls this week, police said, and investigators who searched Prescott's apartment Friday found several thousand rounds of ammunition and about two dozen semiautomatic rifles and pistols. He was receiving a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital. He was not expected to be charged Friday.

"We can't measure what was prevented here, but what was going on over the last 36 hours was a significant incident in the county. And we think a violent episode was avoided," Prince George's County Police Chief Mark Magaw said.

It wasn't clear when the threat was to be carried out or how seriously it was meant to be taken, but last week's mass shooting at a Colorado theater during the latest Batman movie, coupled with a "Joker" reference, put police on edge and gave the comments extra urgency, officials said.

Prescott was taken into custody Friday morning at his apartment in Crofton.