A 22-year-old man who authorities say identified as an involuntary celibate and plotted to kill women at an unnamed Ohio university has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of attempting a hate crime.
Tres Genco, of Hilliard, Ohio, entered the plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. He faces up to life in prison because he threatened to kill people, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson said.
Genco’s lawyer, Richard Monahan, didn’t immediately reply to a voicemail seeking comment.
Genco identified as an involuntary celibate, or incel, and interacted with an online community of mostly men who advocate for violence against women because they believe they are unjustly denied sexual or romantic attention, authorities said.
He conducted surveillance at an Ohio university in January 2020 and wrote a document that month titled “Isolated” that he described as “the writings of the deluded and homicidal,” according to prosecutors. He signed it, “Your hopeful friend and murderer.”
Police searched Genco’s home in March 2020 and found a firearm with an attached bump stock — a device that allows it to be rapidly fired — a pistol, loaded ammunition magazines, boxes of ammunition and body armor. He was charged in July of 2021.
Genco’s manifesto points to a 2014 shooting committed by a self-identified incel named Elliot Rodger, who killed six people and injured 14 others outside a sorority house at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before killing himself.
In April 2018, a 25-year-old self-identified incel named Alek Minassian drove a rented van into a crowd of mostly women in downtown Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 14.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.