A man accused of threatening to commit a mass shooting at an Orange County courthouse has been taken into custody.
Byrom Zuniga Sanchez appeared in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Tuesday, and he is being held at Metropolitan Correction Center San Diego, according to federal records.
The arrest was first discovered by Seamus Hughes’ Court Watch and later confirmed by an FBI spokesperson.
In October 2023, Sanchez allegedly sent emails with the subject line “active shooter – Lamoreaux Justice Center” in which he promised an attack on Friday, Oct. 13, a date he picked specifically because he “like[s] to make moments feel special, and unforgettable,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him on Oct. 5, 2023.
Sanchez, 32, was “enraged by his experience in family law court at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange from 2019 to 2021,” the Los Angeles Times reported last year.
In an apparent response to his frustrations, Sanchez allegedly included the threats such as these in his emails:
- “I am more committed to murdering you than I am to being present as a father. Nothing will change course and nothing will stop the guaranteed accountability requiring your life as payment.”
- “Nothing can save you, and nothing can protect you. Pelosi’s husband got hammered in the presence of police. What makes you think anyone is going to spare your life?”
- “You’re already dead. The remainder of my life will be dedicated to assassinating judges, attorneys, and a police station’s entire shift staff.”
Court Watch also identified previous troubling incidents allegedly involving Sanchez, including going to the house of the Orange County District Attorney in 2021 and coming to the DA’s Office, where he “‘made a scene of dancing and singing erratically, and demanded to speak with the Orange County District Attorney,'” prosecutors said, as reported by Hughes.
Furthermore, in 2022, Sanchez reportedly led Orange County Sheriff’s deputies on a pursuit that ended in a standoff at a Foothill Ranch In-N-Out.