Twenty-two firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, body armor, and a spouse who says the suspect regularly suited up and talked about shooting homeless people. That's what Henderson, Nevada police say they found when they arrested Allison Howlett in a Sunset Station parking garage last Saturday.
Bail was set at $500,000.
Howlett — a male transitioning to female — was taken into custody after a standoff in which the suspect refused to exit an armed vehicle. Henderson Police Chief Reggie Rader confirmed at least 22 firearms were recovered, including a handgun in the driver's seat and a rifle in the backseat. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition were also seized. Howlett faces terrorism-related charges.
The details from Howlett's spouse, Julie Howlett — also transitioning to female — are what every network news producer should be paying attention to. Julie alleged, per local reporting from KSNV, 8NewsNow, and FOX 5 Vegas, that Allison would "frequently put on body armor, grab a rifle" and mention taking her to homeless shelters, "alluding to the idea of shooting homeless people." The threats reportedly spanned several years. "Suicide by cop" threats were also part of the pattern.
The case has received almost no coverage outside of local Nevada outlets and conservative media. That absence is worth examining.
We've now had multiple incidents involving trans-identified individuals and mass shooting plots or actual mass shootings. In 2023, Audrey Hale — who identified as transgender — shot and killed six people, including three children, at the Covenant School in Nashville. The suspect in the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs identified as non-binary following arrest. The Aberdeen shooter. Each time, the mainstream press treats the trans identity as an irrelevant biographical footnote — when they mention it at all. If the suspect were wearing a MAGA hat, we'd get a six-part CNN series and a congressional hearing.
The standard defense is that correlation isn't causation, and that's fair enough as far as it goes. But the media doesn't extend that same courtesy when the demographic box they're checking happens to be one they don't like. When there's a pattern involving any group the press finds politically useful to highlight, they'll run trend pieces for weeks. When the pattern involves a group they've designated as protected, the data suddenly becomes too complicated to discuss.
Five hundred thousand dollars bail. For a suspect with 22 firearms, body armor, expressed desires to shoot homeless people, and terrorism charges. Meanwhile, we watched grandmothers who walked through the Capitol on January 6th get held without bail for months.
The case is documented. The pattern is documented. The coverage isn't.