Audio Transcript

Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department Detective Vince Kingston: I think a great example of how the JTTF can work and be successful is the Timothy Wilson case. Wilson came onto our radar because he was sharing some extremist views online and also had received some information about making explosive devices.  

So at that point, we tracked down where Mr. Wilson lived. We found out he lived in Belton, Missouri, but he also worked at a men's shelter in Kansas City, Kansas. So, he was traveling across [the] state line.  

There were different agencies involved with keeping track of his movements, digging into his background, finding out who he was, where he lived, and where he worked.  

We eventually were able to introduce an undercover agent to Mr. Wilson.  

And at that time, Mr. Wilson shared that he had plans to either shoot up an elementary school or attack infrastructure. 

Wilson had ideas of shooting up a[n] elementary school and also attacking infrastructure in order to instigate a civil war. That was his ultimate goal because he believed a civil war was coming, and, so, he was trying to start that. 

As he developed a relationship with our undercover agent, his idea and his plan changed, and he wanted to bomb a hospital. And this was right when the COVID[-19] pandemic was kicking off.  

His thought process was, “If I, you know, blow up a hospital, that will definitely cause chaos.” 

Mr. Wilson started buying materials to construct an explosive device. He stored them at a storage facility. And this whole time, we have surveillance on Mr. Wilson. We have a tracker on his car. We know his movements. There's a camera at the storage facility, so we know his comings and goings. 

Being part of the JTTF, that was definitely a luxury, because there's no way a local department would have the time or resources to dedicate to having this 24-hour surveillance on Mr. Wilson. 

When the time came that he decided he wanted to plant the bomb, the FBI SWAT team went in to make the arrest. At that time, Mr. Wilson, pulled out a gun and took his own life before SWAT could arrest him.  

Definitely not the outcome we were looking for a situation like this, but at the same time, lives were saved. I mean, Mr. Wilson was looking to cause some serious damage. He said he wanted to place a bomb in front of some windows so it would cause maximum carnage.  

We were able to have people from different agencies giving us information, sharing information with them. And just the resources of the FBI being able to be on surveillance on him, track his movements—because, at any point, he could have decided to just go rogue and decide to carry out an act of violence. We also had some other federal agencies involved, whether it's ATF, [U.S.] postal inspectors, you know, all part of this joint effort to mitigate this threat. 

So, after working on that case, I realize how invaluable the JTTF was.