Still no motive after armed Pennsylvania man arrested at West Chester "No Kings" protest, DA says
Investigators are still working to determine a possible motive for Kevin Krebs — the armed Pennsylvania man who police arrested at the "No Kings" protest in West Chester and later found homemade bombs at his home — but no manifesto or pre-written plans to commit an act of terrorism have been found, Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said Monday.
Krebs, 31, was arrested on June 14 in the 100 block of North High Street, in the area of the protest, one of several in the Philadelphia region, demonstrating against President Trump's deportation policies and other actions by his administration.
According to police, Krebs was arrested with a fully loaded concealed Sig Sauer P320 handgun under a long, yellow raincoat, ammunition, an M9 bayonet, a pocket knife, pepper spray, a ski mask and gloves. The affidavit of probable cause said police found an AR-15 style rifle on the floor of Kreb's SUV.
Chester County Sheriff's Office records showed Krebs did not have a concealed carry permit. He told the arresting officer he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but he did not, de Barrena-Sarobe said.
Krebs was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, a misdemeanor, and was later released on $250,000 bail.
"He had a right to have firearms, he just didn't have a right to have it concealed," de Barrena-Sarobe said.
Investigators later found more than a dozen improvised explosive devices inside Krebs' home in East Whiteland Township. Police also found sketches of explosive devices, tactical vests, a homemade silencer, a 3D printer, two gun switches and other items inside the house.
"We sat down, we questioned ourselves as a group and really came together and decided to execute a search warrant as soon as we could follow the legal process, and we got that together on Monday," de Barrena-Sarobe said. "We didn't expect to walk into that house and find explosive devices, let's be perfectly clear. That's not what the search warrant was for."
Krebs was rearrested and is now facing weapons of mass destruction and dozens of additional charges.
Police also searched Krebs' parents' house in West Chester and seized a police radio, laptop and cellphone, which Krebs allegedly admitted belonged to him. His black Ford Explorer was parked in the driveway with night vision goggles and a gas mask inside.
De Barrena-Sarobe said that, in total, 21 firearms belonging to Krebs were recovered. The district attorney said two were found at the protest, one at Krebs' home and Krebs' family turned over 18 more.
Family reported to police that Krebs is on the Autism spectrum, de Barrena-Sarobe said.
Krebs told police and the FBI that he planned to protest peacefully and brought a gun because he wanted to remain safe, de Barrena-Sarobe said.
The investigation found that Krebs is not a "super partisan person," but he did want to protest some of Mr. Trump's policies, de Barrena-Sarobe said.
"We don't feel that there's anybody else involved right now, but we are going to make sure that no one else is involved," de Barrena-Sarobe said.
De Barrena-Sarobe said Krebs is not facing additional gun charges at this time, but investigators are looking into whether any of the recovered firearms violated either state or federal law.
