It began with a phone call on Halloween to report the sound of gunshots. When police arrived at a Margate home, a woman told them her brother often shot his guns at the house, according to court records, and that she sometimes feared him.
That day, officers would enter his room and happen upon a disturbing collection of over 40 items: drawings of local schools and parks labeled with the N-word; a list of synagogues, Jewish businesses and the name of Congressman Jared Moskowitz; and a stockpile of six guns, several rounds of ammunition, smoke grenades and a Ghillie suit.
John Lapinski Jr., 41, had amassed the arsenal despite multiple laws that ought to have prevented a man with both a felony record and a domestic violence injunction from purchasing guns, according to prosecutors.
The circumstances of his arrest highlight the increasing precariousness of preventing acts of mass violence or domestic terrorism, which often seem to rely on chance encounters or tips from acquaintances and loved ones. Had someone not called to report gunshots that day, it’s unclear whether authorities would have found out about the stockpile and writings. Margate Police Lt. Michael Druzbik referred to existing records when asked if the sister’s tip was in fact what led officers to Lapinski, saying, “that’s what’s described in the affidavit.”
“In today’s time, with the climate that we’re in in this country, there’s no way law enforcement could be able to keep up with a lone wolf,” said David Thomas, a professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University and a retired police officer. “There’s no way they’d have any idea that person is sitting here lurking in the wind. Because he’s not communicating anything, he hasn’t said anything to anybody.”
What happens now to Lapinski is up to the court system. Prosecutors plan to argue against bail at his detention hearing, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday and postponed until next week to give Lapinski time to hire a lawyer. He currently faces only firearm charges, to which he has not entered a plea.
It remains to be seen if prosecutors will add more serious charges, given that he had not committed any “criminal act” Margate Police said it appeared he was planning. Police did not give more specifics on what they thought the act might be.
Criminal history
Lapinski had several run-ins with the law prior to the phone call that brought officers to his house last month.
His status as a felon stems from a Lake County case in 2005, when he was convicted of resisting an officer with violence and criminal mischief, according to court records. A witness told police he had watched Lapinski walk towards the handicap parking area of the local public library and key a Ford F-250. When an officer took his arm, Lapinski snatched it away and ran, according to a probable cause affidavit. He served four years of probation.
Lapinski was also arrested previously in Broward in a 2002 case accusing him of grand theft. Prosecutors later decided not to pursue charges.
Then, in December 2016, Lapinski was arrested on domestic violence charges and pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct, for which he served six months’ probation. His girlfriend had told police that he had pushed her into the carpet, covering her mouth so she couldn’t breathe, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The next day, court records show, she petitioned for a domestic violence injunction, saying that he owned two shotguns and one handgun. A judge approved the petition, then in 2017 extended it until further notice, and ordered Lapinski to surrender his firearms, concealed weapons permit and any other gun licenses to police.
It is unclear, based on court records, if he surrendered his guns or licenses at the time.
Despite the ruling, by October of this year, Lapinski had an “arsenal” of weapons, according to prosecutors. Experts say it wouldn’t have been difficult to obtain them: Loopholes in Florida law allow anyone to purchase guns at a gun show or from a private seller without a background check.
“Florida does not have its own universal background check and/or permit-to-purchase law, so a prohibited possessor can simply purchase firearms from a gun show or private seller and lie about their status,” Emma Fridel, an assistant criminology professor at Florida State University, said in an email.
In addition to going to private sellers, it’s also not difficult for people to simply travel to other states that do not have background checks and purchase guns there, added Katherine Schweit, a former prosecutor and FBI agent who has authored several books on mass shootings.
“It is a fact that our system for gun ownership and gun purchases is not designed to prevent somebody from purchasing a gun through a variety of means,” she said.
Margate Police had been called to the home where Lapinski lives nine times between 2017 and the recent visit that led to his arrest, according to calls for service records, mostly over minor instances. In one call in 2019, a city employee told police that a man at the home had become “really aggressive” with him. Police officers later spoke to Lapinski, who said that a city employee had damaged his mailbox while making water repairs. In another report, a male caller told police he had been getting death threats. Details for six of the calls were not available.
On Oct. 31, Margate Police responded to a call about gunshots in the area, which they discovered were coming from Lapinski’s home, according to a police affidavit. When they got to the home, they spoke with his sister, who was “extremely nervous.”
She told them that her brother would often tell her to stay in her room, then go outside, after which she would hear gunshots, and that she had “been expecting the police to show up at the house” due to all of the shooting, according to the affidavit.
Many cases involving written threats or ideation of violence have come to the attention of law enforcement only after unrelated encounters with police or tips from neighbors, acquaintances or loved ones.
In a case in a small town in Vermont, an 18-year-old boy named Jack Sawyer was arrested after police said he had voiced plans to commit a shooting at a local high school, according to local news reports. He also owned guns. Police had first received a tip about him on Feb. 14, 2018, the day of the Parkland massacre, from a woman whose daughter went to school with him.
In October of last year, a 19-year-old named Henry Horton IV was arrested after a Jupiter police officer pulled him over because his tail light was out, according to a probable cause affidavit. Only upon searching his car did the officer discover handwritten plans to commit multiple mass shootings; the teen later admitted he had done “recon” at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Horton is currently charged with two counts of written threats to kill or do bodily harm, each punishable by up to 15 years in prison, to which he has pleaded not guilty. He was released on house arrest with a monitor and $1 million bond.
In the past, law enforcement had easier access to people’s information, through wiretaps or other forms of surveillance, Thomas said. Now, the Internet has both made it easier for people to become radicalized and to do so in private, making it close to impossible for anyone, especially law enforcement, to detect unless someone tips them off.
“They could be your next-door neighbor and you’d never have any idea until SWAT or FBI or somebody shows up at the front door and they’re kicking at the door,” Thomas said. “You just wouldn’t know.”
The nation’s increasingly hostile political climate adds to the likelihood of threats. Moskowitz, who did not respond to requests for comment for this article, has pointed to the need for increased security for representatives in their home districts. His home district includes Parkland. Typically, U.S. Capitol Police offer some protection in Washington, but members must coordinate with local police or hire their own security back in their districts. Some carry their own weapons.
How to keep the public safe?
The ease of purchasing guns presents another question: How can law enforcement ensure that people remain safe from a potential threat, especially without curtailing free speech?
For now, Lapinski is behind bars pending his bond hearing. His current charges would not lead to a life sentence, but do carry a lengthy prison time upon a conviction: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon has a maximum sentence of 15 years in Florida, while violating his domestic violence injunction and failing to register a silencer each have maximum sentences of 10 years.
Prosecutors haven’t said whether they will add more serious charges against Lapinski. In some cases of written or spoken threats, charges have gone as far as terrorism or attempted murder, experts say.
Still, in some cases, serious charges have been overturned when plans never turned into an actual attack. In February 2018, prosecutors charged Sawyer, the Vermont teen, with attempted aggravated murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His attorneys argued that he never actually attempted any of the crimes. The case made it to the Vermont Supreme Court, where justices sided with Sawyer and the attempted murder charges were dismissed.
“There’s got to be a place where law enforcement should be able to act to stop a horrific crime from occurring that’s a lot sooner on this continuum than when someone actually shows up to commit the act,” Rose Kennedy, the local state’s attorney, told Vermont Public Radio.
Whether the law would side with keeping Lapinski imprisoned on more serious charges would come down to the “aggregate of information,” said Schweit, which must show intent.
“It is a challenge to balance the evidence and look for someone’s intent to do something that never actually occurred,” she said. “… You can write your list of people that you don’t like and publish it in the newspaper if you want; that’s what the First Amendment is all about. But when you take that information and add it with other acts that indicate an intent to do harm to those individuals, that’s where law steps in and says you don’t have that right.”
In addition to the writings and the weapons arsenal, prosecutors are reviewing other potential evidence found in Lapinski’s room, including a recording device disguised as a ballpoint pen and multiple cellphones and laptops, according to recent court filings.
Thomas thinks it is likely that Lapinski will be imprisoned for a long time if convicted, given the serious nature of the firearms charges alone.
“I’d dare say you don’t have to worry about him getting out and being a threat any time soon,” he said.
Outside of keeping someone imprisoned, law enforcement can utilize the risk protection order under Florida’s “red flag law.” Margate Police already filed a petition for such an order on Tuesday, citing Lapinski’s writings and the weapons arsenal. A judge granted a temporary order Wednesday, and a hearing about a final order will be held in early December.
A risk protection order is a step up from other protective measures because it allows police to confiscate guns, whereas alternatives such as domestic violence injunctions do not force the removal of weapons. Someone could still purchase guns illegally under a risk protection order, but they would have to start from square one.
“Technically, an RPO respondent could lie about being prohibited to purchase guns from private sellers,” said Fridel. “However, a key feature of the RPO law is that respondents must surrender their firearms and ammunition to law enforcement or a third party. So, the RPO would be effective at least in removing the weapons the respondent currently has, as well as temporarily suspending their concealed carry permit.”
The combination of firearms access, the Internet, and a mental health crisis have made the work of finding and stopping domestic terror threats extremely difficult, Thomas said.
He compared it to a routine traffic stop, where police never know what might greet them from behind the car door.
“Unless there’s some intelligence information, or a neighbor has spotted something, or a mom or a dad has spotted something, or a husband or a wife, the police, tactically and information-wise, they’re always going to be a step behind,” Thomas said. “There’s just no other way.”