WA student allegedly had ‘morbid fascination’ with school shootings, made plans

Kamiakin High student Mason Bently-Ray Ashby was obsessed with school shootings and had everything he needed to go into his Kennewick school with a gun the Monday after his weekend arrest, said Benton County Prosecutor Eric Eisinger in opening arguments Tuesday in Ashby’s trial.

Ashby, who was a 14-year-old ninth grader when he was arrested Sept. 20, had a plan, a gun and a video of a “dress rehearsal” walk through of the high school that he recorded the day before, Eisinger said.

Even after he was confined in the Benton-Franklin Juvenile Detention Center after his arrest, he continued creating documents about school shootings, according to Eisinger.

The prosecutor said it was a “miracle” that someone across the nation reported a TikTok post that appeared to be a plan for a mass shooting at Kamiakin High and that law enforcement worked quickly to identify and arrest Ashby.

Ashby’s attorney, Branden Landon, agreed that Ashby was fascinated with school shootings and suicide, but said that did not indicate he would act on his fantasies.

The nonjury trial of Ashby for attempted first degree murder with a firearm enhancement likely will focus on whether Ashby did more than plan a mass shooting. For him to be guilty of attempted first degree murder also requires that he took a substantial step toward a shooting.

Judge Jacqueline Shea-Brown also will consider whether Ashby is guilty of a charge of threats to bomb or injure property and 11 counts of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

The trial, being held in the Benton County Justice Center, is expected to continue for three more days. Ashby, now 15, appeared in court Tuesday in a dark suit.

Fascination with mass shootings

Ashby’s plan to commit a school shooting was not a passing fancy, Eisinger said.

He had a morbid fascination with school shootings and looked up to school shooters, the prosecutor said.

The teen created three maps found by law enforcement that showed an alleged plan for a shooting at Kamiakin High, the prosecutor said.

One color-coded map was posted in a 5-second video on TikTok.

Kennewick police found a second one in his bedroom after the internet provider associated with a TikTok account under the name of Waffenblud, German for blood weapon, was traced to Ashby’s grandparents’ home where he lived.

The third map was intercepted by an officer at the juvenile detention center about three weeks after Ashby was detained. According to court documents, he was attempting to pass it to another inmate.

Together the maps showed “target” areas that included Science Room 222 and most of the classrooms in the 700 building. The library, the other rooms in the 200 building and two rooms in the 100 building were marked as “potential targets.”

Glass windows were marked in blue with a note that they could be shot through.

A boy’s bathroom near the auditorium was shown as a “gear up” area and an apparent path from the bathroom past target and potential target areas to an exit was depicted, according to a court document. The school security area was marked as “be weary of,” in at least one map.

The map found at the detention center had a “suicide spot” marked, according to a court document.

Also found at the detention center was a list of school and other mass shootings, the number of those who died in each shooting and a ranking of prior mass shootings, according to a court document. The prosecution said that it believed Ashby compiled the documents from memory.

Shooting manifesto key evidence

Ashby took screenshots of what the teen labeled as a “manifesto” early the morning of the day he would be arrested, according to the prosecution.

“I’m sure you will all be laughing at me by the time you figure out who I am and why I did what I did, especially you people on WPD,” the manifesto said. WPD is an online site with death videos.

A day earlier, Friday Sept. 19, Ashby had walked around the Kamiakin campus and recorded a video commenting on the library’s glass windows and structure, saying “Shoot through the windows, shoot through the doors” and mentioning two mass school shootings in other states, according to court documents.

Ashby also had access to guns after figuring out the access code to his grandfather’s gun safe in July, according to the prosecution.

On the day he was arrested, he had taken a gun, a Glock 22 pistol, in his backpack to visit a friend. There he showed it to his friend and another teen, according to court documents.

When he learned that police were at his house and his grandmother was coming to get him, he gave the gun to his friend, who would scatter it, a magazine and bullets in brush near Columbia Center mall in Kennewick two days later, according to court documents.

The evidence — including taking the gun to his friend’s house, posting the TikTok video, doing a walkthrough at the school and writing a manifesto — shows that Ashby was in the process of carrying out a school shooting, not just planning it, Eisinger said.

The manifesto is particularly important, he said.

There is a difference between creating a plan and writing it down for others to find, he said.

“He wanted it found,” Eisinger said.

Shooting intent ‘not enough’

However, Ashby’s attorney countered that the teen’s actions do not meet the legal requirements for attempted murder because there is no evidence that he would actually carry through the plan.

“Intent to commit a crime is not enough,” Landon said.

It’s standard for teens to post on social media, but online braggadocio does not mean they will carry out actions, he said.

There was no evidence that Ashby entered school buildings where he was not allowed, his attorney said.

Ashby had access to guns since July and had taken the same one to his friend’s house several times, not just the day he was arrested, Landon said. Each time previously he had showed off and played with the gun and then taken it home, according to a court document.

Ashby left the gun with his friend the day he was arrested because he did not want to get in trouble for having it when he spoke with police, according to the defense writing in a court document.

Ashby had access to three magazines for the gun, but left the other two in his grandfather’s gun safe, according to the court document.

His actions never escalated beyond fantasy to what might be considered preparation for a shooting, Landon said.

Ashby has not committed any known violent action in the past several years, has never shot a gun and has attended school numerous times after making social media threats or generating “personal fantasy media” such as a manifesto or videos, according to a court document.

Ashby is being tried as a juvenile.

This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 5:00 AM.