Texas family believes man armed with bombs, guns planned to harm his stepmother
A man who White Settlement police suspect may have been plotting to attack North Texas churches was parked outside his stepmother and father’s house when officers found him with several guns and homemade bombs, his stepsister told the Star-Telegram.
White Settlement police identified the man as 33-year-old Tino Napoleon Ross, the Star-Telegram previously reported. Ross was arrested May 21 upon his release from a mental health facility in Wichita Falls.
Ross had initially been detained by police in November 2024 after a neighbor called to report a suspicious van parked outside of a home in the 9200 block of Jason Lane about 5:30 in the morning, police said. At that time, Ross told police that he was looking for his uncle’s home, which he planned to shoot up and set on fire, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
In reality, neither of Ross’ uncles had ever lived in White Settlement, and the home Ross was parked outside of belonged to his stepmother and father, his stepsister Darlene Smith said.
“His intention was not to blow up a church over there,” Smith said. She believes that Ross planned to harm her mother.
Smith’s mother is a federal government employee. She usually left for work around the time Ross was parked in the van outside the house two days before Thanksgiving, Smith said. Ross had been upset that his father had recently gotten back into a relationship with Smith’s mother, Smith said.
When officers responded to the neighborhood, they found Ross sitting in the driver’s seat of the van with a handgun in his lap, police said. A search of the van revealed improvised explosive devices, other weapons including a rifle and an AR-style pistol, ammunition and body armor, according to affidavits supporting Ross’ arrest warrants.
Ross is charged in Tarrant County with possession of prohibited weapons and unlawfully carrying weapons, according to court records. He is being held in the Tarrant County Jail with bond set at $155,000.
The ATF also is investigating to determine possible federal charges, White Settlement Police Chief Christopher Cook said.
In an email, Ross’ court-appointed defense attorney Kelly Meador said, “I will be conducting a thorough, independent investigation of these matters.” Ross intends to plead not guilty to the charges and looks forward to his day in court, Meador said.
Police believe that his relatives’ house might have been the first of multiple locations that Ross was planning to attack, Cook said at a news conference in May. On his cell phone, Ross had researched places of worship that investigators believe were other potential targets, Cook said.
Ross’ arrest came as a surprise to Smith, she told the Star Telegram. Growing up in Fort Worth, Ross had been involved in sports, church and school, and there was never “a situation where he grew up in a dysfunctional home,” Smith said.
“No one understands why he did it,” she said.
Had the concerned citizen not called police last November, Smith said she believes things could have gone “a completely different way.”
“My whole family would have been dead that day,” Smith said. “I would be talking to you now as an orphan.”
