Four California students arrested, suspected of plotting mass killings in high school

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This was published 8 years ago

Four California students arrested, suspected of plotting mass killings in high school

By Liam Stack
Updated

Four Northern California high school students have been arrested in connection with what law enforcement officials called a highly detailed plan to shoot and kill fellow students and teachers, just days after a mass shooting on a community college campus in rural Oregon.

The four, all students at Summerville High School in Tuolumne, California, "were going to come on campus and shoot and kill as many people as possible at the campus," Sheriff James Mele of Tuolumne County said at a news conference on Saturday.

A possible mass shooting has been prevented at Summerville High School in Tuolumne, California, after the arrest of four students suspected of planning an attack.

A possible mass shooting has been prevented at Summerville High School in Tuolumne, California, after the arrest of four students suspected of planning an attack.Credit: Summerville High School

Mele did not identify the students other than to say all were male juveniles. Tuolumne is about 190 kilometres east of San Francisco.

Investigators have found no clear motive for the planned attack, Mele said, but he said that "the suspects' plans were very detailed in nature and included names of would-be victims, locations and methods in which the plan was to be carried out." The students planned to open fire during an event at school, he said, and "were in the process of trying to obtain these weapons."

Officials said the plot was foiled on Wednesday when a group of students alerted a teacher after they overheard three of the four discussing a plan to open fire on the school.

The teacher immediately told school administrators, who quickly removed the three from their classrooms and called the police, said Robert Griffith, superintendent of the Summerville Union High School District.

Mele said the fourth suspect had been identified during the investigation.

"Within two to three minutes, those administrators got up out of their seat, recognising the severity of the information that they received, and were in the classroom pulling those students out," Griffith said at the news conference.

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An "immediate" search of the students' lockers by administrators turned up no weapons, Griffith said, "so, within a very, very short period of time, we knew that we did not have an immediate threat to safety."

Nevertheless, Mele said the plot had been "pretty doggone close" to fruition. The investigation has so far been based on interviews with the suspects, during which they gave a detailed confession, Mele said. The police executed two search warrants and seized the suspects' electronic devices, he said, but have not yet analysed their contents.

The students were ordered to leave the school that day, and their parents were notified and are cooperating in the investigation, he said. He praised the parents for their help during "a very trying time" for their families and called their assistance "a key element" in foiling the plot.

None of the suspects were allowed to return to school between their removal on Wednesday afternoon and their arrest on Friday, Griffith said.

The parents of students whose names appeared on a list of targets have not yet been notified, Mele said.

The four suspects were taken into custody at their homes and transported to the Tuolumne County Probation Department, and then to a juvenile detention centre in another county, he said.

Eric Hovatter, an assistant district attorney, said his office would file charges based on evidence from the investigation.

"It is clear from past history such as Columbine and Sandy Hook, as well as other recent events in Oregon, that children are willing and capable of planning and carrying out acts of violence against students and teachers on school grounds," Hovatter said. "While it is easy to say that could never happen in Tuolomne County, the public and local law enforcement must remain vigilant, as they did here."

"That the suspects are young does not minimise the gravity of the conduct nor the potential for great harm to many innocent people," he added.

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