WASHINGTON — A Stafford County teenager is in police custody, charged with threatening a bombing and shooting at a high school.
The 15-year-old boy, who is not being named because he is a minor, is accused of making the threats to Brooke Point High School on Tuesday Oct. 27 during the school day, Stafford County sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy said in a statement Thursday.
Several students overheard the threats, according to Kennedy.
One student is said to have told the principal that the boy revealed his plan to her, which he said would take place the following school day. Also, the same student said the boy allegedly told her that if she didn’t accept the gun he was going to bring her and help him carry out his plan, he would also shoot her.
Several students told their parents about the threats, Kennedy says. The parents called the school’s principal, who called law enforcement.
“We take these threats very seriously,” Kennedy says.
Deputies responded to the teenager’s house and questioned him. Kennedy says a search of the boy’s home found weapons that were locked and secured. None were missing. Authorities found no indication of a plan to do harm on the boy’s computer.
The sheriff’s office arrested the boy and charged him with making threats to bomb or damage a building and for committing, conspiring and aiding and abetting acts of terrorism
Investigators say they believe the threats are a result of depression and anger by the student toward fellow students.
“Apparently the young man was angry because of his difficulties in developing relationships with fellow students,” Kennedy says.
Stafford County Public Schools’ superintendent said in a statement that the school system can’t comment on the ongoing investigation.
“We understand our community may have questions regarding these types of situations as they happen. We want the public to be assured that along with the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, we are working in the best interest and for the safety of all our students” Superintendent Dr. Bruce Benson said in the statement.
The teen is being held at the Rappahannock Regional Detention Center in Stafford County.
