Police in Maryland have arrested suspect who referred to himself as "a joker" and threatened to shoot up his workplace, investigators said Friday. 
 
 An official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that Neil Prescott of Crofton, Md., phoned in the threat to software and mailroom supplier Pitney Bowes near Washington, D.C. Investigators say a search of Prescott's home turned up more than 20 guns, including assault rifles and handguns, and more than 400 rounds of ammunition. 
 
 The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is unfolding. 
 
 Though the suspect referred to himself as "a joker" when he called in the threat, the official said there is no other known connection to a deadly shooting last week at a Colorado movie theater during the latest Batman movie. 
 
 Investigators believe Prescott , who was arrested Thursday night, had lost his job with the company and was disgruntled. They say he called in the threat earlier this week. 
 
 A message left at a telephone listing for Prescott in Crofton was not immediately returned. 
 
 Prescott was being held Friday at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, where he was undergoing a psychological evaluation. Crofton is located between D.C. and Annapolis, Md. 
 
 A message left for a corporate spokeswoman at Pitney Bowes seeking comment was not immediately returned. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report. Tucker reported from Palmer Park, Md. ||||| A Crofton man who owned a cache of weapons repeatedly threatened to "blow everybody up" at his former workplace and declared himself a "joker," police said, in what authorities believe is a reference to last week's mass killings during a midnight screening of"The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. 
 
 Neil Edwin Prescott, 28, was taken into custody at his apartment early Friday and transferred to Anne Arundel Medical Center for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, Prince George's County police said. He has not been charged with a crime, and the investigation is continuing. 
 
 Police said Saturday that Prescott has now been hospitalized, and could be there for a week. No charges are expected during the time he is being treated. 
 
 "I truly believe we saved people from being harmed," said Anne Arundel County police Chief James Teare Sr. 
 
 Officers said they found two dozen firearms — including shotguns, a tactical rifle and handguns — along with accessories and several thousand rounds of ammunition at Prescott's apartment on the 1600 block of Parkridge Circle during a search Friday. He had registered at least 13 of the guns, according to court documents. At an earlier visit, police said he had been wearing a T-shirt that read "Guns don't kill people, I do." 
 
 According to an application for the search warrant, Prescott called his former supervisor, Gary Crofoot, at mail services supplier Pitney Bowes in Capitol Heights on Monday and repeatedly said, "I am a joker. I'm going to load my guns." 
 
 He also said he wanted to "see the supervisor's brain splatter all over the sidewalk," the search warrant application says. Police confirmed that there was animosity between the two men but said the threat was directed toward "everybody." 
 
 Crofoot, who alerted police to the statements, declined to comment Friday when reached via cellphone. 
 
 The Batman allusion led police to fear a copycat killing modeled on the Aurora shooting, in which 12 people were killed and 58 wounded. The man accused in those shootings, James Holmes, had his hair dyed reddish-orange and called himself the Joker, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said. 
 
 "In light of what's recently happened, it's fairly obvious and that's how we took it," Prince George's County police Chief Mark Magaw said during a news conference Friday. 
 
 "We can't measure what was prevented here," he said, but added that a "violent episode" was likely avoided. 
 
 Prince George's County State's Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks praised the cooperation among authorities. 
 
 "Law enforcement is all about preventing loss of life," she said in a statement. "Today's efforts are an example of the many ways we work collectively to keep our citizens safe." 
 
 Prescott has no criminal record in Maryland, according to an online court database. His only infraction was a traffic stop in 2007. He was accused of driving a 2001 Volkswagen at a speed of 42 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone on Crofton Parkway and given probation before judgment. He was described as being 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 270 pounds at the time. 
 
 Research shows that many atypical violent crimes covered extensively by the media attract copycats, said Dr. James McGee, retired chief of psychology at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital and former chief psychologist of the Baltimore County Police Department. 
 
 "There are a lot of people out there who are thinking about doing something," said McGee, who is not involved in the Crofton case. 
 
 When police first went to Prescott's home Thursday, he told them — through a closed door — that he had a firearm, according to police. Police said they instructed him to drop his weapon and come out, which he did, wearing the gun T-shirt. Based on his appearance and conversations with him, police said, they sought approval for the emergency evaluation and the search warrant, which they executed the next day. 
 
 Prescott had either recently been fired from his position working for a Pitney Bowes subcontractor or was in the process of being fired, according to police records. 
 
 Pitney Bowes spokeswoman Carol Wallace said in an emailed statement that Prescott had not been on company property for more than four months. He had raised alarms at the company before, she wrote. 
 
 "We have clear security protocol, and when we had concerns about this individual, we contacted authorities," Wallace wrote. She declined to answer questions, and employees at the Capitol Heights location refused to discuss Prescott or his alleged threats. ||||| Wendi Winters lived for 65 years. Her life was filled with her four adult children and Girl Scout cookies. It was a life with room for her Teen of the Week column for the Capital Gazette newspaper and sarcastic quips for her friends. It included the church youth groups she led, and her devotion to the U.S. Naval Academy and the American Red Cross, where she donated 11 gallons of blood since 1999. 
 
 But chances are it’s the last seconds of Winters’ life that most people will remember. 
 
 “On Thursday June 28 my mom picked up a trash can and a recycling bin,” Phoenix Geimer, 28, told the crowd attending his mother’s memorial service. “She charged at the coward who shot her in the chest as she rushed him, slowing him down and giving the police time to arrive …. She gave her heart, her last breath and her final eight pints of blood in defense of a free press and of her family at The Capital... 
 
 “My mom was an American hero.” 
 
 Winters was among five Capital Gazette staffers who were fatally shot that day. The others were Rob Hiaasen, 59; Gerald Fischman, 61; John McNamara, 56; and Rebecca Smith, 34. 
 
 The Capital Gazette is owned by the Baltimore Sun Media Group. 
 
 Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, of Laurel, who had a long-running feud with the newspaper, is being held on five counts of first-degree murder. 
 
 The Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis held a memorial service for Wendi Winters, a long-time member, at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis. Ms. Winters was killed along with 4 other Capital Gazette journalists on Thursday, June 28, 2018 in a mass shooting at the paper. The four other journalists were Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, John McNamara and Gerald Fischman. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun) (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun) 
 
 Winters’ memorial service was originally scheduled to be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, where she was a tireless volunteer. But so many people wanted to bid her farewell that the ceremony was moved to the 725-seat Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. 
 
 Even then, Saturday’s service was standing room only. The Rev. John T. Crestwell Jr., who said that Winters was instrumental in getting him hired as the church’s associate minister, said that more than 900 people jammed into the auditorium. 
 
 The American Red Cross handed out small tissue packets to the mourners and they were heavily used. Throughout three hours of reminiscences and music (including the gospel anthem “We Shall Overcome” and an excerpt from Dvorak’s 9th Symphony performed by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians), the crinkle of cellophane could be heard as the packets were surreptitiously unwrapped. 
 
 Yumi Hogan, the first lady of Maryland, spoke at the ceremony, saying that she met Winters in the summer of 2016. Winters was interviewing her about recent redecorating at Government House for her Home of the Week column, and that the two connected over their shared love of design. 
 
 Hogan turned to Winters’ four children — Winters, Phoenix, Montana and Summerleigh Geimer — and said: “You are not alone. It’s hard to believe that you’ll never see her again. But she can see you.” 
 
 On a lighter note, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley told the crowd that he was frequently mystified by Winters’ ability to seemingly cover every single event that occurred inside city limits. 
 
 “I actually thought the Capital newspaper had cloned her,” he said. “I could never understand how one person could be in so many places on the same day. I’m sure she’s done a story about every person in this room.” 
 
 The crowd laughed, only to pull out tissues again as other speakers reflected on the tragedy. 
 
 “I’ve always thought of sparks of light as a flock of inveterate gossips or better yet the journalists of the galaxy,” said Leika Lewis-Cornwell of the Unitarian church, as she lit the memorial candle. “They are tiny sparks tearing across the dark expanse to tell us what’s happening on the other side.” 
 
 Winters Geimer spoke of her mother’s longstanding hatred of firearms. 
 
 “When I was little, we were not allowed to have toy guns,” she said. “It didn’t matter if it was a squirt gun or a pop gun, it was banned from our house.” 
 
 In 1995, she said, the family was living in Montclair, N.J. The local post office was an easy walk, and Wendi Winters visited so often she was on a first-name basis with clerks Ernie Spruill and Scott Walensky. On March 22 of that year, a former employee opened fire, killing four — including Spruill and Walensky — and injuring a fifth worker. 
 
 “This event impacted my mom deeply,” Winters Geimer said. “She didn’t visit the new post office regularly and she began to buy stamps in books instead of as needed. She kept a photograph of the post office memorial above her desk at home. The picture is still there.” 
 
 Because Winters was the consummate reporter, organizers of her memorial service made sure to take care of details that they knew would have been important to her: The service started on time, at noon on the dot. A media kit distributed to reporters in advance included speaker biographies, the ages of the Geimer children, a timeline for the service and the correct spellings of everyone’s names. 
 
 Summerleigh Geimer, 20, described a recent dinner date at which her mom modeled a new sundress with black and white stripes that was topped by a red sweater. When her daughter didn’t immediately grasp the similarities between her attire and a newspaper, Winters spelled it out. 
 
 “She said, ‘I’m black and white and read all over,’” Summerleigh Geimer said. 
 
 Several Capital Gazette journalists attended the service. Reporter Rachael Pacella, who was injured in the attack, was visibly shaken in the moments before the ceremony began. She stood in a room on the second floor, braced her arms against a fixture, closed her eyes and remained motionless for several seconds. “I just need a second to pull myself together,” she said. 
 
 In an interview with the Capital Gazette, Janel Cooley, a sales consultant with the newspaper who had not spoken previously about the attack, described watching from beneath her desk as Winters rose to meet her attacker. 
 
 “She may have distracted him enough that he forgot about me, because I definitely stood up and was looking at the door,” Cooley said. “I’m sure he wasn’t expecting … anyone to charge him.” 
 
 “I absolutely think that Wendi Winters saved my life,” Pacella said. 
 
 None of Winters’ children were surprised that she’d tried to confront the gunman. Not only had she recently completed a course in how to behave in an active shooting situation, it wasn’t the first time she’d refused to be bullied by an armed attacker. 
 
 During an interview after the memorial service, Winters Geimer said that when her mother was a college student in Richmond, Va., a would-be robber entered the retail store where the the 6-foot tall young woman held a part-time job. 
 
 “The man pulled out a knife,” Winters Geimer said. “She grabbed him from behind, picked him up and shook him and held him until police arrived.” 
 
 Geimer said it was in her mother’s nature to stand up for the office mates she considered “her ducklings.”
– Police near Baltimore say they may have stopped a mass shooting modeled on the Dark Knight tragedy, reports the Baltimore Sun. Authorities arrested a 28-year-old man in Crofton who phoned his former employer, threatened to "shoot the place up," and referred to himself as the "joker," reports AP. Police found nearly two dozen guns in his home, including assault rifles. Neil Prescott is being held at a medical facility in Annapolis, where he is undergoing a psychological exam. He had apparently just lost his job at Pitney Bowes.