Teen held in US school shooting plot
2012-12-16 12:54
Bartlesville - Hours before a gunman opened fire at a
Connecticut elementary school, police in Oklahoma arrested a teenager for
allegedly plotting to attack his high school and trying to recruit classmates
to help him.
Police in Bartlesville, a community about 65km north of
Tulsa, arrested 18-year-old Sammie Eaglebear Chavez shortly before 05:00 on
Friday on charges of conspiring to cause serious bodily harm or death. He
remained in Washington County Jail on Saturday on $1m bond, and he is due in
court on 11 January.
Court documents didn't list an attorney for Chavez, and
calls to a number listed in court documents as his reached a recorded message
saying the line wasn't available.
Layne Jones, an assistant principal at the school, alerted
police to the alleged plot on Thursday, according to a probable cause
statement. A student told authorities that Chavez had tried to "recruit
other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the
school auditorium where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the
doors shut," Bartlesville Police Lieutenant Kevin Ickleberry wrote in the
affidavit.
Chavez told the students he planned to place bombs at the
doors that he'd detonate when police arrived, and he threatened to kill
students who didn't want to join him, police wrote.
Investigators said Chavez told a teacher earlier this month
that he had bought a .45-caliber gun and had been learning to shoot it. Also,
the affidavit said Chavez had been trying to obtain a diagram of school
facilities and had used a school computer to seek information on a .22-caliber
rifle that could be mounted on a machine gun platform.
Potential incident
Students said they saw Chavez researching the 1999 Columbine
High School massacre, in which 12 Colorado students and a teacher were murdered
by two students who also died.
The district alerted parents and faculty by email around
noon on Friday that it had investigated a "potential incident"
Thursday and forwarded the information to the police department, which dealt
with it appropriately.
News was still
trickling out about the attack in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman
forced his way into an elementary school and killed 20 children, all ages 6 or
7, and six adults before killing himself.
Superintendent Gary Quinn, in a news release, credited
administrators' quick action in following up on what he said had been unsubstantiated
rumour and presenting their findings to the authorities.
"We appreciate the excellent relationship we have with
our local law enforcement and their swift response to the information we
provided them. We will always put the safety of the students of the
Bartlesville Public School District first and foremost."
- SAPA
