4 Arrested, Weapons Seized At Denver Hotel Adjacent To MLB All-Star Game

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I’m quite sure hotel and casino workers are still a little skittish after the shooting in Las Vegas a couple of years back. If they see weapons, they’re likely to call the police. The last thing anyone wants to do is ignore a potential warning sign and witness another incident like that.

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This is especially true when your hotel is adjacent to the stadium where the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is going to be played.

But what are the odds of that happening?

Well, pretty good, apparently.

Authorities arrested four people after police seized dozens of rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from hotel rooms adjacent to the baseball stadium hosting Major League Baseball All-Star events this weekend, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The preliminary assessment of law enforcement is that the stash of guns appears to be connected to a possible illegal transaction involving drugs and guns, according to an internal law enforcement memo obtained by ABC News.

Sources said three males and a female, all in their 40s, were arrested at Maven Hotel in downtown Denver, which is located just a block from Coors Field, at 7:30 p.m. local time Friday.

Authorities said the suspects brought multiple rifles, ammunition, body armor and illegal drugs to rooms on the 4th and 8th floors of the hotel.

Gabriel Rodriguez, Ricardo Rodriguez, Richard Platt, Kanoelehua Serikawa are appearing in court this morning in Denver at 10:30 a.m. local time. Gabriel and Ricardo Rodriguez are each being held on no bond allowed.

The tip came from a member of the housekeeping staff who saw a rifle while cleaning one of the rooms.

Now, I’m of two minds about this.

On the one hand, with everything these people had, they were clearly not there to take in Denver’s culture. The maid who saw the rifle and knew that the All-Star Game was coming up had reason to be concerned. While having a rifle isn’t necessarily indicative of a crime, calling the police to let them investigate makes some degree of sense.

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On the other, though, there’s the fact that we do have a right to keep and bear arms and no one should have to worry about the cops busting the door down because you’ve exercised that right.

According to the FBI, these people weren’t planning anything for the All-Star Game, but they were still up to no good. It seems clear that the staff member made the right call.

What I worry about, though, is when they make the wrong call. What happens when someone makes the call and jams up a law-abiding citizen for the sin of having a gun in a hotel room?

Normally, I tend to think that if you have questions about a potential mass shooting, it’s better to call it in and let the police determine there’s no threat. However, with anti-gun sympathies still running higher than any of us would like, that’s not without risks.

In this case, things turned out well. Criminals were arrested and no good guys got hurt. Let us hope that continues.

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