FBI seized over 120 guns from home of Jeffrey Michael Kelly

Federal agents on Wednesday morning hauled more than 120 firearms, including “machine guns,” out of the Ahwatukee Foothills home of a man suspected of shooting at a campaign office for the Democratic Party three times and posting bags of white powder labeled as poison near political signs.

Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, was arrested on Tuesday night near his Ahwatukee Foothills home by Tempe police who, according to court documents, used surveillance footage to find the suspect.

Pictures of the suspect vehicle were shared through Silent Witness, resulting in tips from community members who recalled Kelly had been accused of stealing campaign signs in the area in 2022, Tempe police Chief Ken McCoy said at a news conference on Wednesday.

About a dozen plainclothes law enforcement personnel were taking inventory of a menagerie of weapons in the carport of Kelly’s home on Wednesday morning. A reporter overheard mention of handguns being found in a master bathroom safe and the words “machine gun” and “silencers.”

One of the law enforcement agents told a Republic reporter that he was with the FBI. At a court hearing, a prosecutor said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also was involved.

The weapons were placed in a moving van and hauled away. The remains of the garage door, which neighbors said was ripped out by police, lay crumbled on the sidewalk just south of the home.

Kelly was ordered held on seven felony counts, including three of committing an act of terrorism. A court document said authorities were still preparing a case regarding the white powder attached to the political signs. A court document said Kelly was also under two separate federal investigations.

The Arizona Republic reached out to the FBI and U.S. Justice Department, but did not immediately receive a response.

At a court appearance on Tuesday, an attorney for Kelly, Jason Squires, said his client was a retired aerospace engineer who at one point had top-secret clearance through his employer. He said the firearms he had were as a “sportsman” and that none was possessed illegally.

During Kelly’s initial appearance on Wednesday, a prosecutor from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office struck an ominous tone. He said the weapons cache showed Kelly was “preparing to commit an act of mass casualty.”

A court document said Kelly’s actions showed a pattern of escalation of his suspected terrorist activity.

Kelly was arrested about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday during a traffic stop. Kelly’s attorney Squires said his vehicle was stopped using a grappler that hooked the car from behind. “That is quite shocking to a person who’s never had any previous allegations at all,” Squires said in court.

Squires said in court the car was then surrounded by more than a dozen law enforcement personnel.

Prosecutors said Kelly had numerous guns in his car, including a machine gun. He did not have his cellphone. Similarly, he left it behind during the previous shootings at the Democratic office, the prosecutor said. That led authorities to believe he was on his way to “potentially do something,” the prosecutor said.

At the news conference, Chief McCoy said his officers “were not surprised that he was armed.” He said the stop was made because officers had probable cause. He did not detail whether the department knew how many weapons he had in his car before the arrest.

Hundreds of guns seized at Kelly’s residence

At the home, authorities also found BB guns and rifles consistent with what they said were fired at the Democratic campaign office in Tempe, according to a probable cause statement filed with the court.

Court documents showed that during the search, authorities found a 2009 Toyota Highlander covered by blankets, matching the description of the vehicle seen on surveillance video arriving at and fleeing from the Democratic office on the nights of the shootings. Authorities also found numerous license plates, some of which matched those seen on surveillance video.

A search of Kelly’s Google account by Tempe police revealed searches for the address of the Democratic Party office in Tempe and multiple searches related to the research and purchase of various firearms and accessories.

Kelly’s social media page disclosed numerous posts of anti-Democratic ideology, as well as “numerous posts indicative of his knowledge and possession of firearms,” the court document read.

Real estate records show Kelly moved into the home in the early 1990s. Kelly’s yard had a rock yard and is decorated with found art, including an old clock, a cart and a small model airplane. A brown metal sculpture of a wide-eyed dog stands sentinel on a post near the sidewalk.

The home is in a well-manicured subdivision that includes some two-story homes.

Neighbor Kris Smith said she didn’t know the man too well — by choice.

“There’s people you try to stay away from,“ said Smith, a retiree who has lived in the neighborhood since 1992.

Smith said a neighbor who lived next door to the suspect often had contentious run-ins over the growth of bushes and pool maintenance issues. Smith said that neighbor described him as a “January 6-type person.“

What happened at the Democratic offices in Tempe?

A field office for the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was shot at three different times in late September and early October. The latest incident occurred on Oct. 9 about 12:30 a.m. at the office near Southern Avenue and Priest Drive, north of the Arizona Mills mall.

The previous two shootings occurred on Monday, Sept. 16, and Monday, Sept. 23, at the same location. Like the October incident, those shootings happened overnight, between midnight and 1 a.m., and no injuries were reported.

According to court documents, the first incident involved a BB gun, whereas the second and third incidents involved gunfire from a .22 caliber gun. Damage included bullet holes in the glass front door and a window.

Authorities believed Kelly shot at the office from his vehicle.

Arizona Democrats shuttered the field office two days after the third shooting.

Police saw that the same silver sports utility vehicle was used in each shooting and were able to grab license plate information from surveillance video and license plate readers.

Tempe police pulled trash out of Kelly’s garbage can on Oct. 17, the probable cause statement said. Inside, detectives found three casings that were similar to those that struck the Harris-Walz campaign office, the document said.

Kelly was accused of the following related to the shootings, according to Tempe police:

• Two counts of unlawful discharge,
• Two counts of shooting at a nonresidential structure.
• Three counts of committing a terrorism act.
• Three counts of criminal damage.

Tempe police posted a Silent Witness bulletin on Oct. 9 offering a possible $1,000 reward for information on the person who shot at the campaign office. Pictured was an image of a silver SUV taken from surveillance video. The next day, police received tips, Chief McCoy said, that led them to Kelly.

“That was a critical piece of information to help our investigators solve the case,” McCoy said.

Officers began surveillance of him shortly afterward, McCoy said.

What happened with the political signs in Ahwatukee Foothills?

Phoenix fire crews were dispatched to a section of Chandler Boulevard in southeast Phoenix on Tuesday after an unknown substance was discovered on political signs.

Police said Kelly was “hanging suspicious bags of white powder from several political signs lined with razor blades that he posted in Ahwatukee.”

According to court documents, Kelly was observed posting anti-Democrat signs at various locations near his home on Monday evening and into Tuesday morning, attached with clear plastic bags containing a white powdery substance with labels stating “biohazard.” One sign stated, “(Expletive) you! Play stupid game’s win stupid prizes! Guess the poison,” court documents showed.

Initial testing revealed the substance to be baking powder, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said.

Charges related to the incident are pending, court documents said.

It is unclear whether the incident in Ahwatukee is related to a reported anthrax scare at Kari Lake’s Senate campaign office in Phoenix that occurred later in the day.

Who is Jeffrey Kelly?

According to his attorney, Kelly was an aerospace engineer with a high level of clearance that allowed him to have illegal weapons, such as machine guns, his attorney said on Wednesday.

Records showed that Kelly has competed in shooting competitions and has made a few small-dollar donations to organizations backing presidential candidate Donald Trump this year. Records also reported Kelly donated to Kari Lake’s gubernatorial campaign in 2022 and is a registered Republican.

A social media profile indicated he worked at a sportsmen’s club and gun range in Mesa.

Kelly’s bail was set at $500,000, and his release order included house arrest with an ankle monitor.

Candidate felt targeted by suspect in 2022

Phoenix attorney Paul Weich told The Republic he was running as a Democrat for state representative in Legislative District 12 in 2022 when he had a run-in with Kelly. Prompted by several hundred dollars’ worth of his campaign signs going missing in June 2022, Weich hired an investigator who he said found surveillance video catching Kelly in the act.

According to Weich, the investigator zeroed in on Kelly by the license plate on the vehicle he was traveling in. Captured late into the night, Weich said the video shows Kelly wearing a cap, looking around before acting, slashing the signs and then snatching them before stashing them in his garage. 

Weich said the incidents started in the Ahwatukee Foothills area, but vandalism and property theft of his signs eventually spread throughout the district. At one point, the spliced-up signs were left at the entrance to Weich’s neighborhood.

“We weren’t sure what his motivations were in targeting my signs,” Weich said. 

Further sleuthing by the investigator revealed details Weich said impressed upon him that Kelly had “violent Christian nationalist conspiracy theory-type things in his head.”

Weich said the investigator unearthed Kelly’s employment at a shooting range and social media postings with a decidedly Christian nationalist bent. He noted that Kelly lifted a Christian nationalist website meme paraphrasing a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson about “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Weich took this as a call to violence. 

The lawyer said he would regularly post about Jewish holidays on social media during his run for office. His party affiliation was clear by the Democratic Party’s donkey logo on his campaign signs. 

Despite evidence pointing to Kelly as the perpetrator, Weich said law enforcement did not move to arrest him. Weich said that Phoenix police feared that approaching Kelly would pose a threat to their safety. A prosecutor out of the Phoenix City Attorney’s Office declined to pursue charges, Weich said. 

The Republic has reached out to Phoenix police and the city’s attorney.

Weich said he fears that Kelly managing to evade law enforcement may have pushed him to act further, leading to an escalation on Tuesday. “We saw that he obviously felt emboldened,” Weich said.

Further details were expected to come later Wednesday afternoon.

(This story was updated with new information.)

Republic reporters Laura Gersony, Karen Bartunek and Skylar Heisey contributed to this article.