2 men arrested after allegedly threatening Pokemon World Championship

Pikachu characters perform outside of a mall near Tokyo.

(Image credit: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 24 August 2015

Boston police arrested two men on weapons charges Friday after being alerted to alleged threats of violence being made online against players at the Pokemon World Championship, the department said Sunday.

On Thursday, security officers at Boston's Hynes Convention Center notified the Boston Police Department about the threats, ABC News reports. Officers stopped two male suspects as they tried to enter the event, and found multiple firearms in their vehicle. They were unable to provide a gun license and the car was seized, but they were released pending a search warrant, Boston police said. After receiving the warrant on Friday, detectives found a 12-gauge Remington shotgun, DPM5 Model AR-15 rifle, several hundred rounds of ammunition, and a hunting knife, police said.

Iowa residents Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27, were arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. "This was not a nexus to terrorism, but the investigation into the specific motive for the threats is ongoing," Officer Rachel McGuire, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department, told ABC News. The Pokemon World Championship is an invitation-only event where players compete for more than $500,000 in scholarship awards. The three-day competition ends Sunday.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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