Self-described ‘incel’ pleads guilty to plotting to kill women in Ohio mass shooting

An Ohio man pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempting to conduct a mass shooting of women.

Tres Genco, of Hillsboro, Ohio, was arrested by federal agents in July 2021. According to court documents, he wrote in a manifesto that he wanted to “slaughter” women “out of hatred, jealousy and revenge.” He also referred to death as the “great equalizer.”

On the same day that he wrote the manifesto, he searched online for sororities and a university in Ohio, investigators said.

The 22-year-old is a self-proclaimed “incel” — or involuntary celibate — a member of an online community of men who exhibit their sexual frustrations by voicing their misogynistic views against women. Incels promote violence in support of their belief that “women unjustly deny them sexual or romantic attention to which they believe they are entitled,” the Justice Department said in a news release announcing his arrest.

For about eight months, he maintained profiles on a popular incel website where he posted hundreds of times, sometimes detailing how he would spray “some foids and couples” with orange juice in a water gun — a reference to the killing of six people in California by incel Elliot Rodger in May 2014, who had used a water gun to spray orange juice prior to the attack.

“Foids” (short for “femoids”) is a term used by members of the incel community to refer to women.

Tres Genco, of Hilliard, Ohio, who entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, to a federal charge of attempting a hate crime.

Authorities said he planned to “aim big” and kill as many as 3,000 people.

“Genco formulated a plot to kill women and intended to carry it out. Our federal and local law enforcement partners stopped that from happening,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio said in a statement.

“Hate has no place in our country — including gender-based hate — and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously prosecute any such conduct,” Parker added.

According to court documents, an investigation revealed that in 2019 Genco purchased “tactical gloves, a bulletproof vest, a hoodie bearing the word ‘Revenge,’ cargo pants, a bowie knife, a skull facemask, two Glock 17 magazines, a 9mm Glock 17 clip and a holster clip concealed carry for a Glock,” federal authorities said.

From August through December of that year, he attended Army Basic Training in Georgia but was discharged for entry-level performance and conduct.

He was arrested on March 12, 2020, after Highland County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at his home, where they found a Glock-style 9mm semiautomatic pistol that was hidden in a hidden vent in his bedroom.

The gun had been “modified,” authorities said, in a way that it showed no visible manufacturer’s marks or serial number.

Officers also found a second firearm with a bump stock attached, several loaded magazines, body armor and boxes of ammunition.

On Tuesday, Genco admitted to having both firearms in furtherance of his plot. He pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to commit a hate crime.

Since he admitted his intent to kill, the crime is punishable by up to life in prison.