(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Last December, a 15-year-old girl named Natalie Rupnow shot up the Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin—killing another student and a teacher, and wounding six others before killing herself.
When investigators searched Rupnow’s phone, they found that she was part of a network of extremist and sadistic chatrooms, and that she was communicating with many other people. One of those people was a 22-year-old Florida man, who was allegedly in a “conspiracy” with Rupnow to commit mass shootings, according to a criminal affidavit released Tuesday.
Palm Beach County Sheriffs arrested someone who was in touch with Rupnow for years. Seems likely that this was the "boyfriend" who provided a journalist with Rupnow's manifesto.
The two were so close that police think they had a "conspiracy" to commit mass shootings.This is a… https://t.co/3UnPXfwDRX pic.twitter.com/VKOZIA2tr0
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) May 1, 2025
Florida police say they stopped the 22-year-old, Damien Blade Allen, just in time when they arrested him Sunday.
“There’s no doubt in my mind they have stopped a mass shooting that was going to happen,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told WPBF 25 News. “This guy was ready to go, had all the equipment, had the propensity to do it. It’s just a matter of what day was going to set him off to go do it.”
When the FBI searched through Allen’s social media accounts after last December’s Rupnow shooting, agents found videos of him posing as a police officer. Apparently, the videos were so convincing that they thought he really was one at first. According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office affidavit, Allen drove a Ford Crown Victoria similar to a police vehicle, he had all the equipment, and even had what looked like a Palm Beach Sheriff’s laptop.
“Based on postings made by Allen, dressed in a full class B PBSO uniform it was initially believed that he was likely a deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office. FBI Milwaukee then contacted FBI Miami division to contact PBSO Internal Affairs bureau (IA) due to a deputy being in contact with an active shooter,” the PBSO affidavit stated. “It was later determined that Allen was not a PBSO deputy.”
Law enforcement also discovered that Allen allegedly sold guns illegally through a website that is still active. The PBSO said it’s still investigating this website.
Further investigations of Allen’s social media communications revealed his “conspiracy” with Rupnow to commit mass shootings, according to the affidavit. Allen and Rupnow said they loved each other on multiple occasions, and Allen told her at one point that “we go down together.”
“Based on these exchanges of posted statements between Rupnow and Allen on TikTok it is clear that Allen unequivocally makes written threats to conduct mass shootings at 7 different locations and that he is armed with at least two firearms,” the PBSO affidavit said, alleging that there was “a conspiracy between both of them to commit mass shootings.”
It turned out, Allen had a lot more than two firearms. According to WPBF 25 News, “deputies say they found 18 firearms, including what appeared to be automatic weapons, more than 300 pounds of ammunition, and … a taser, a two-way radio, and a fake body camera made with a 3D printer.”
“Detectives say Allen had more than PBSO gear — they found an FBI uniform, an Army Ranger outfit, Marine Corps dress blues, a ballistic vest, helmets, and fake federal and military ID badges,” WPBF 25 News added.
A picture also shows what appears to be some sort of bazooka, but law enforcement didn’t address that during their press conference Wednesday.
Sheriff Bradshaw and FBI Announce Arrest of Loxahatchee Man in Mass Violence Threat Case https://t.co/0eLpyP3dHp
— PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) April 30, 2025
Allen is set to have a detention hearing Friday.
Meanwhile, the FBI says it’s still investigating the network in which Rupnow and Allen were involved. According to researcher Becca Spinks, Rupnow was in touch with at least one other school shooter—her Twitter/X account followed that of Solomon Henderson, a 17-year-old Tennessee high schooler who killed a female student and wounded one other before killing himself in January.
In addition, the FBI detained a 20-year-old man named Alexander Paffendorf, who was also allegedly talking to Rupnow online about committing a mass shooting.
On Tuesday, A court reportedly granted a three-year gun violence restraining order against Paffendorf, which bars him from owning firearms for three years, according to Fox 5 in San Diego. Paffendorf has not been criminally charged over the matter.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
