WASHINGTON — Investigators think another school shooting may have been prevented with the arrest of two teens and the seizure of more than 60 weapons in southern Maryland.
Those boys, ages 15 and 16, are now facing charges of making a threat of mass violence. One boy’s father faces related charges as well.
On Friday — two days after the deadly school shooting in Florida — two Leonardtown High School students were overheard talking about the massacre, according to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.
A tipster said the teens talked on a school bus about how they would pull off a school shooting differently, and would not get caught.
“The Office of Safety and Security identified the two students and contacted the sheriff’s office to conduct a home visit,” said Dr. James Smith, county schools superintendent, during a news conference Wednesday.
Investigators learned one student had access to weapons. And Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Angela Delozier, Leonardtown High’s school resource officer, said there were troubling posts on social media.
“One of the juveniles was actually posting with the firearms,” she said.
Eventually, dozens of weapons, including semi-automatic rifles and handguns, were recovered from one’s boy’s home, along with ammunition.
That student’s father, 39-year-old David Fairfax, has a federal license to own the firearms but is charged with two counts of reckless endangerment, one count of access to a firearm by a minor, and one count of illegal transfer of a firearm.
