Henderson Transgender Man Accused of Mass Shooting Plot Held on $500,000 Bail

A Henderson man accused of stockpiling more than 50 firearms and threatening a mass shooting was arraigned Wednesday on 35 felony counts, though the terrorism-related threat charge police announced two days earlier does not appear in the formal complaint filed by the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.

“Allison Howlett”, 36, appeared by video before Henderson Justice Court Judge Barbara Schifalacqua, who set bail at $500,000 and ordered high-level electronic monitoring, a weapons prohibition and no contact with the domestic violence victim named in the case. The complaint charges Howlett with assault constituting domestic violence with use of a deadly weapon, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, 21 counts of larceny of a firearm, eight counts of possession of a machine gun or silencer, and four counts of possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun. He is due back in court July 15 for a preliminary hearing.

The case began the morning of June 27, when Henderson police received a 911 call at 9:38 a.m. reporting a domestic dispute. The caller, Howlett’s wife, Julie Howlett, told dispatchers Howlett had taken her car and that it was loaded with firearms. She said Howlett had made statements about committing suicide by cop and carrying out a mass shooting, and gave officers a vehicle description and license plate number, though she did not know where Howlett was headed.

Julie later told police the fight began that morning after she caught Howlett using her credit card without permission. She said Howlett came at her with a gun and pulled the trigger during a struggle before she managed to wrestle the weapon away. Howlett then fled in her Subaru WRX, a vehicle Julie said was already loaded with firearms she had planned to transport out of state for her work as a gun dealer. Julie’s claim to be a federally licensed dealer has not been independently verified. At Tuesday’s press conference, LVMPD officials said investigators believe the vehicle’s firearms belonged to Julie, but said detectives are still working to determine how the weapons were acquired and whether they were legally possessed.

Officers arrived at the residence around 9:51 a.m. and learned Julie had a location tracker on the vehicle, which showed it parked near Warm Springs Road and Stephanie Street. Working with Sunset Station casino security, Henderson police located the car in the second-floor parking garage at 11:17 a.m. Surveillance video reviewed by police showed Howlett driving into the garage, parking, opening the trunk, then returning to the driver’s seat, where he remained until officers arrived.

Howlett refused repeated commands to exit the vehicle and played loud music with the windows up as officers surrounded the car and blocked it in with patrol vehicles. An officer fired a 40mm less-lethal round that missed after Howlett briefly stepped out around 11:36 a.m. and then got back in. Officers eventually convinced Howlett to roll down the window during negotiations, and when Howlett asked for water, officers used the moment to grab his hand through the open window and pull him from the vehicle. Body camera footage played at Tuesday’s press conference captured the moment, with an officer gripping Howlett’s hand as he said, “Ow, OK, I’ll get out.” Howlett was stunned once with a Taser during the arrest. No officers or bystanders were hurt.

Henderson Police Chief Reggie Rader said Howlett was found sitting on a handgun in the driver’s seat, with a fully automatic, suppressed MP5-style submachine gun within reach in the back seat. A search warrant on the vehicle turned up 22 firearms in total, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to Metro Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren.

Because of the scale of the weapons and the nature of the threats, Henderson police notified LVMPD’s Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center, which coordinates with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. A search warrant executed at the Howletts’ Henderson home turned up 30 additional firearms, including an M2 .50-caliber machine gun, two Colt AR-style rifles fitted with M203 grenade launcher attachments, seven suppressors and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Investigators recovered 52 firearms in total between the vehicle and the residence.

Julie told investigators Howlett had a documented history of threats stretching back to January 2024, when he first made comments about carrying out a mass shooting. She provided police with a recorded conversation from that month in which Howlett can be heard saying that if the FBI didn’t arrest him, there would be a mass shooting and hundreds of people would lose their lives. Koren said the recording had never previously been reported to law enforcement. Julie told police the threats continued through early 2025 before appearing to stop, then resumed in the weeks before the arrest.

Six days before the standoff, Henderson police responded to the home after Julie reported Howlett had pointed a firearm at his own head. Officers placed him on a Legal 2000 mental health hold. Julie told investigators that on June 21, Howlett again put a handgun to his own head before turning it toward her. Henderson police said they had responded to the residence four times total prior to the arrest.

During a recorded post-arrest interview, Howlett denied planning a mass shooting or threatening anyone, telling detectives he took the vehicle only to leave after the argument. He acknowledged knowing the car contained firearms because Julie had planned to move them out of state, and said the weapons had been legally transferred to her through an ATF-approved process. That claim, like Julie’s account of her own dealer status, has not been independently confirmed. Howlett told police that users on the online platform Discord had fabricated threats attributed to him and that he believed he was being set up. He also told investigators he and Julie have been married four years.

Koren said the investigation remains in its early stages, particularly regarding motive and background, and pointed to the case as validation for Project Meridian, a counterterrorism expansion Sheriff Kevin McMahill announced in February following a string of recent Southern Nevada threat cases, including a foiled ISIS plot, the arrest of an alleged Hamas propagandist, two active-shooter incidents, a vehicle bombing outside a Las Vegas hotel, and a firebombing at a Tesla facility. Koren invoked the 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival shooting directly, saying threats of this nature are taken seriously in a community that lived through the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Delzotto said the bureau was involved in the investigation from the outset and is coordinating with federal prosecutors, though no federal charges had been filed against Howlett as of Tuesday’s briefing.

A defense attorney or formal response from Howlett’s legal counsel has not been reported.