Teen talked of shooting up a West Richland school. He tried to recruit help, say police

A 13-year-old West Richland boy allegedly tried to recruit two fellow students in his plan to shoot up Enterprise Middle School.

The teen was reported to the principal after school Friday after he caught the attention of classmates while using his school-issued Google Chromebook laptop to research guns, according to court records.

That set in motion two days of intense investigation by school information technology staff and West Richland police, ending with the boy’s arrest Sunday on suspicion of threats to kill and felony harassment.

He appeared Monday in Benton County Juvenile Court and was ordered held on $5,000 bail because he is a threat to community safety.

His mother, who was in the courtroom, told Court Commissioner Jerri Potts that her son will stay in custody because she can’t afford the bail.

The teen did not speak during the hearing, other than acknowledging that he is not allowed within 2,000 feet of the school while this case is pending. He has been expelled.

The Herald is not naming the boy because he has yet to be charged. Prosecutors have until Wednesday afternoon to file.

Deputy Prosecutor Annie Chau urged the judge to order a mental health evaluation for the teen.

She was worried someone could come up with the bail, and he would soon be back out in the community without being checked.

“The fact of the matter is it’s Jan. 29 and we’ve already had two school shootings this year, one in Kentucky and one in Texas,” said Chau. “I don’t think ordering a mental health (exam) is being unreasonable in any way.”

Potts determined the teen cannot be released from Juvenile detention until he is evaluated.

Court documents show that police went to the school at 2:17 p.m. Friday after Enterprise Principal Jennifer Klauss heard from two students about what they allegedly saw in class.

The kids said they tried to take a picture of the teen’s Chromebook. The boy noticed and become upset, making a comment about how he was going to shoot up the school, documents said.

Staff members analyzed the search history of the boy’s computer and found thousands of different searches that indicated there may be a pattern of what he looked up and of planning a campus attack, court documents said.

“Some of the searches included the selling of body parts, different varieties of gun, urban armory, homemade body armor and school shooting memes,” documents said.

A school parent then contacted police Saturday evening to say his son had possible information about the teen.

That 14-year-old student said that about two weeks earlier he went with the boy to a home, where he was shown two to three different guns and a locked box that purportedly held more guns.

The boy allegedly pointed at locked box and said “if I were to go through with it, I would use that one,” court documents said.

The student also claimed to see a spiral notebook with “words,” though he didn’t read it, and hand-drawn pictures of the school. He said the boy brought a serrated, butterfly-style knife to school last week and showed it to him, documents said.

They allegedly discussed plans for the shooting, with the fellow student saying he would rather be a shooter than be shot at, court documents said.

However, he told the boy he didn’t want to shoot anyone, so they talked about him using ladders and bolt cutters to access the roof so he could serve as a lookout, documents said.

He told police he was “very scared” of his classmate, who threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the plans.

When asked if he had any targets, the suspect reportedly named a school employee and another person.

The student went with police Sunday to find the home, identifying a Bluewood Street home. He claimed the teen had a key in his backpack for the house.

Later Sunday afternoon, another 14-year-old student told police he had been in on the conversations with the suspect.

He said he told the suspect he didn’t want any part of it, but recalled that his friend had talked about making bombs and blowing stuff and using his Chromebook to look up guns, court documents said.

He reported seeing the suspect carry a map of Enterprise and hearing him say, “Yeah, I’m gonna go and shoot up the school,” documents said.

The teen never went into specifics about what he wanted to destroy or who he wanted to kill, but he talked about locking and blocking all of the school exits, the student told police.

He said he thought the classmate was joking and decided not to tell anyone because he feared being beaten by the teen.

Capt. Thomas Grego said the suspect had access to weapons.

Officers will be conducting extra patrols at the school to reassure parents, students and staff that they are safe, he said. The teen did not threaten other schools.

Several parents raised concerns that they were not told about the threat until after they dropped their child off at school.

“The threat was taken seriously, and West Richland police were immediately called,” said Steve Aagaard, a Richland School District spokesman.

School officials said they were waiting for the results of the police investigation. Police didn’t release information about the arrest until after 7:30 a.m. Monday.

At last count, 688 students attend the 5200 Paradise Way middle school.

This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Teen talked of shooting up a West Richland school. He tried to recruit help, say police."