Deputies believe mass shooting avoided at concert
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
GEORGE – Deputies from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office believe they stopped an Ephrata man who may have had plans to commit a mass shooting at the Gorge Amphitheater Friday night. Approximately 25,000 people were attending the sold-out concert series Bass Canyon, an electronic dance music festival.
Citizens and security notified deputies around 9 p.m. of a man in the parking lot. Suspicions were raised when they saw a man, later identified as Jonathan R. Moody, 31, inhale an unknown substance from a balloon then load two 9mm pistols from the trunk of his car. Moody concealed one pistol in his rear waistband and the other in an outside-the-waistband holster. He then approached concertgoers, asking what time the concert ended and where people would be exiting the venue.
Security detained Moody outside of the venue gates and disarmed him. Deputies arrested Moody following an investigation on suspicion of one count of possession of a dangerous weapon and one count of unlawful carrying or handling of a weapon. The Gorge Amphitheater does not allow weapons on site, but the GCSO said Moody’s possession of weapons was not the lone factor for his arrest. His actions of appearing to inhale what could have been an intoxicant, loading weapons, and questioning where concertgoers would be exiting and at what time furthered the suspicions of witnesses and deputies.
Moody did not many any statements to deputies. Nobody was injured.
