West Chester PD Mugshot of Kevin Krebs from this past summer.
On the Federal Court Docket, the charges read: 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), (f) and § 5871 unlawful making and possessing of unregistered destructive devices
I have been keeping an eye out since we learned the federal authorities took custody of No Kings
We last heard about Krebs in October when Deanna Durante from NBC10 broke the news that Kevin Krebs was no longer the guest of Chester County, but was becoming a guest of the Feds.
The case of Kevin Krebs continues to evolve. As of a couple of days ago he is now in Federal custody. Deanna Durante from NBC10 broke the story initially, or at least that’s where I heard it first.
WEST CHESTER — Kevin Krebs, the Chester County man who carried a loaded firearm to a “No Kings” protest last spring and whose home was later found with explosive devices and other dangerous material, made a brief court appearance here Tuesday, four months after his case made national headlines…..Krebs, 31, of East Whiteland, was dressed in a blue hooded sweatshirt and cargo pants. Flanked by defense attorneys Christian Hoey of Tredyffrin and Thomas Bellwoar of West Chester, Krebs did not say anything to the court during the 10-minute-long proceeding….Although Hoey told Vito that he was uncertain where the case would ultimately wind up — “Who knows where we are going next,” the veteran defense attorney told her after the hearing concluded — he indicated that at least the gun case would be kept at the Common Pleas trial level.
“We are going to aggressively address his defense in state court,” Hoey told the sole reporter attending the hearing in Vito’s court at the Chester County Historic Courthouse. “State court is where this case will be prosecuted, and we intend to defend him vigorously.”
Then the news the other day…. and now Kevin Krebs is in federal custody.
Media reports indicate what most of wondered all along, and that was he someone who had challenges and perhaps dealt with mental illness or was on the spectrum of a couple of things and so on? Lots of people, myself included wondered that given how he was on the no kings social media video and the way his expression was in the West Chester PD mugshot. A TV reporter who had been in court relays that he had been adopted from another country, and was on the spectrum. The Inquirer reporters (Vinny Vella and Robert Moran) wrote about that in their article which you can Google and find.
Apparently his dad and brother were in court with him as well? I have to ask, now that his challenges have been confirmed, now what? Is he receiving mental health help while incarcerated?
My other questions are if he does have issues, serious issues, how did his parents ever let him start owning firearms? And no this is not an anti-right to bear arms conversation, it’s a legitimate question. It also once again points out the validity of mental health evaluations and awareness when it comes to owning firearms. Krebs is 31 years old. So did his parents have any freaking idea of all he owned? And what of his brother? Did he know living under the same roof? I mean how could they not know? Will they have some sort of culpability here?
So what happens now? A deal or a trial? Time will tell. To follow please find some stuff found relating to Federal case. This guy needs serious help, but will he ever be safe to live outside of a structured safely behind walls existence of some sort? You really have to wonder about that, and if I’m honest and being selfish, I hope he doesn’t come back to this area. I have to wonder if the feds took this over because he’s going to be institutionalized somewhere for the rest of or majority of his days?
People also want to label him as a political terrorist, and I have never thought that to be the case. Do I think perhaps that was an impetus for his actions in as far as a reaction to the political climate in this country? Yes, but to label a man with obviously this many mental issues per media reports now as a political terrorist I feel is inaccurate and unfair. And I’m not saying that as some sort of bleeding heart, I am saying it because I believe it to be true, and Democrats around here need to remember this guy was one of them at that point as far as political registration, and what nobody seems to be talking about is this once again points to the glaring holes in our healthcare and mental healthcare systems in this country.
This is scary and sad all at the same time. We owe all of the law enforcement agencies from West Chester PD to East Whiteland PD to all of the other federal, county, and other folks in law enforcement a debt of gratitude. I am thankful how on top of this they were. They did their jobs so impressively from No Kings to his bomb and weapon filled house in East Whiteland; they kept us all safe. This could have been a disaster.
So we still don’t know really why, but law-enforcement had a play date at the Kreb’s house in East Whiteland again today on Conestoga Road. I have been told that today’s visit were the Chester County Detectives.
We first noticed earlier this afternoon this notice on East Whiteland‘s Facebook page:
Then this showed up as an update:
6ABC was out at the scene and I caught it on the 5 PM news. I don’t know if anyone else is covering this or not so I know residents are grateful for 6 ABC being there. more importantly residents are very grateful in East Whiteland for law enforcement and their handling of this. It has been a little unsettling for residents near that house, which is understandable.
Kevin Krebs has TWO separate court dates coming up.
I still haven’t seen anything posted to state whether or not Mr. Krebs will be facing Federal charges as well since the media reports also report the involvement of Federal law-enforcement agencies.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more media on this. And when I listened to the 6ABC reporter, I was somewhat gob smacked at the number of guns that the family turned in to law-enforcement that belonged to this man.
Also a related issue is I am sure we would all like to know why West Chester Borough Councilmen Bernie Flynn and Brian McGinnis allowed the Mayor of Downingtown to speak at a June meeting, but did not allow West Goshen Sunshine to ask a couple of simple questions?
West Goshen Sunshine attended this public meeting and got up and tried to speak at public comment to inquire as to the timeline of events at the No Kings Rally. She was interested in when Mr. Krebs was detained and arrested, and where that was in the whole scheme of the event that day. She also wondered when elected officials and event organizers were told about this?
Allow me to quote her:
The irony is hard to ignore: in the same town that held a “No Kings” rally, I was silenced at the Borough of West Chester meeting last night. Councilmen Bernie Flynn and Brian McGinnis have clearly crowned themselves gatekeepers of free speech–deciding who gets to speak and who doesn’t. That’s not leadership. That’s arrogance.
Fortunately, not every official in West Chester in as bombastic as Flynn and McGinnis.
Edit Council member Nicole Scimone tried to let me speak but was drowned out by Flynn and McGinnis even though she was presiding over the meeting. Thanks for trying Nicole Scimone!
West Goshen Sunshine is well spoken and polite. I am appalled, but not necessarily surprised by the behavior of these two gentlemen in West Chester Borough.
I am not some Luddite, and I understand there are certain things the public are not going to be privy to at this stage of an investigation, and the same goes for West Goshen Sunshine. However, lots of people want to know what the timeline is for notification concerning this incident. Let’s face it if someone hadn’t blown up the original social media video so that we all saw it , how long would it have been before we knew this incident even happened?
I have felt since this happened that politics, not necessarily law enforcement tried to keep a lid on this.
Now to me, it would’ve made sense that the event organizers wanted everything to remain calm that day, because face it if lots and lots of people there on that day had known they just arrested a man with weapons it might have been chaos. And law enforcement did a tremendous job in a huge crowd.
However, I also wonder if politics kept this from getting out until that social media video from TikTok or whatever was released everywhere so we all saw it? And along those lines until people like myself and others started publicly thanking law enforcement, it seems like a lot of politicians weren’t.
Law enforcement has been amazing through this.
Anyway, if you listen to the media reports, it looks like there was at least one more weapon seized today and computers and who knows what else. People are still asking questions like was Krebs egged on by some group or something like that or did he always act alone on his own?
This has been a sad and scary situation. I hope that as Krebs has been a guest of the county that he has perhaps been getting mental health treatment? Because anyway you slice it, what almost happened that day and what they found in his house after that is not the act of a rational human being.
