Planned mass school shooting averted in US
TWO Florida pupils are held at a juvenile detention centre after being accused of planning a mass school shooting inspired by Columbine.
The 14-year-old and 13-year-old boys, whom The Washington Post is not naming because they are minors, are eighth-graders at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lee County, about two hours away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 people in 2018. They were charged with conspiracy to commit a mass shooting and have been ordered to be held at a juvenile detention centre for three weeks, according to the county sheriff’s office.
Police investigations suggested the boys had looked for guns on the black market, studied ways to build pipe bombs and researched the 1999 school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado, County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.
“I have been crystal clear. Our kids will be safe,” Marceno said. “And those responsible for threats – real or fake – will be held accountable.”
The two teens were arrested last week, after authorities were told by a teacher that one of the boys could be carrying a gun at school. Deputies who arrived at the middle school on Thursday found no firearms.
“However, a map of the school was located. The map contained markings indicating the location of each of the school’s interior cameras,” Marceno told reporters on Friday.
Subsequent investigations convinced detectives that the pair had plotted to carry out a school shooting, Marceno said.
Detectives learned the boys were attempting to learn how to construct
pipe bombs and how to buy firearms on the black market, he added. Authorities also learned of the pair’s interest in the two gunmen who killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine before killing themselves; Marceno said the boys were “extensively studying” that shooting. Witnesses said that the two boys had repeatedly expressed their intent to carry out a school shooting last week, according to a redacted document provided by the sheriff’s office.
“These conversations took place during classes, in the cafeteria, and through Zoom virtual meetings,” the document said.