MADISON, Wis. — A 13-year-old boy who had researched college shootings on-line was arrested hours after he tried to enter a Wisconsin elementary college with suspicious baggage, police stated.
Investigators consider the boy was armed, judging by movies of him brandishing what investigators consider was a rifle and feedback he made to different college students, stated Patrick Patton, police chief in Kenosha, a metropolis on Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Chicago.
“We narrowly missed a tragedy,” Patton stated at a information convention Thursday afternoon.
The teenager tried to enter Roosevelt Elementary College round 9 a.m. Thursday with a backpack and a duffle bag, in keeping with police. Workers members grew suspicious and moved to query him, however he fled.
Kenosha Unified faculties have been positioned on lockdown for the remainder of the day as police looked for the boy. They lastly arrested him at his dwelling that afternoon.
The teenager attends Mahone Center College in Kenosha and was a former Roosevelt Elementary pupil, police stated, however they haven’t launched his title. They stated in a information launch Friday that he has been charged with making terroristic threats. Kenosha County District Legal professional Michael Graveley stated in an e mail to The Related Press on Friday that the boy will probably be prosecuted in juvenile court docket, the place proceedings are confidential.
It was unclear Friday whether or not the boy was truly armed when he tried to enter the elementary college. Patton stated investigators consider he was carrying a firearm, however the chief has not stated whether or not police recovered any weapons or ammunition from him.
A search of his dwelling netted a number of pellet weapons that resembled actual handguns and a pellet rifle that resembled an actual rifle, police stated in Friday’s information launch. The boy’s mom instructed investigators he didn’t have entry to any precise firearms.
The teenager instructed detectives he went to the elementary college to promote sweet however later instructed a social employee he meant to scare college students, police stated.
Investigators additionally “have info that the suspect carried out a number of web searches associated to highschool shootings,” Patton stated Thursday, including that the teenager had shared movies and made a number of feedback to fellow college students for weeks earlier than Thursday.
“That is one thing that had been instructed to individuals of his rising intentions,” Patton stated. “We all know that there’s web searches, and all of the crimson flags that we’d search for and anticipate somebody to report have been there.”
Police obtained not less than one video of the scholar wielding what investigators consider is a rifle, Patton stated. The chief performed a video at a information convention Thursday that reveals the scholar holding a firearm as he seems to follow room-entry methods, Patton stated. The chief didn’t specify when or the place the video was filmed, but it surely seems to have been filmed in a house.
“The Kenosha Police Division had purpose to consider the suspect had entry to some sort of firearm primarily based on movies on social media and different witness info,” the company stated in Friday’s information launch. “The actions on scene have been extraordinarily suspicious and the web exercise by the suspect steered that they had intensive analysis historical past associated to earlier college shootings, info on tips on how to execute a college taking pictures, and specifics concerning the focused constructing.”
The scholar was taken into custody some six months after police shot and killed an armed pupil outdoors a Wisconsin center college following a report of somebody with a weapon. The Could taking pictures in Mount Horeb, outdoors Madison, despatched youngsters fleeing and led to an hourslong lockdown of native faculties. Prosecutors introduced in August that the officers who fatally shot the scholar wouldn’t face felony expenses.
Kenosha made nationwide headlines in August 2020 after a white police officer shot a Black man throughout a home disturbance, leaving him paralyzed. The taking pictures spurred a number of nights of protests. A white Illinois teenager named Kyle Rittenhouse shot three individuals throughout the unrest, killing two of them. A jury finally acquitted Rittenhouse of any wrongdoing after he argued he fired in self-defense.
