|
 Rebecca Lewis, deputy district attorney at Los Angeles County,
said in a statement the teens talked about carrying out a mass
shooting at their high school and they allegedly shared their plans
with another teen who they threatened to kill.
A community member brought the information to authorities.
The boys, ages 16 and 17, denied the charges in Pasadena Juvenile
Court, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said on Twitter.
Detectives learned of the plot last Thursday from school
administrators and investigators worked to unravel the plan, which
involved borrowing a gun belonging to one boy's relatives and a
possible gunfight with officers, South Pasadena police said on
Tuesday.
"As they put it, they just wanted to kill as many people as
possible," police chief Arthur Miller said at a news conference.
"There was no target date but they had a very, very specific plan."
Officers on Monday arrested the students, whose names were not
released because they are minors, when they raided their homes in
South Pasadena, an affluent suburb of 24,000 people about eight
miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Since then, students and officials have expressed relief the attack
was prevented at South Pasadena High, which has 1,500 students and
begins classes on Thursday.
Police said the students discussed via Internet messages plans to
make explosives and researched what type of guns to use, how to
shoot one and how to fix a firearm that malfunctioned.
[to top of second column] |
The Pasadena Star-News newspaper quoted the stepfather of the
16-year-old as saying: "He had no intention of going to the school
and actually harming the people that he loves."
The newspaper said the charges were related to making criminal
threats against another teen.
In May, a 16-year-old boy suspected of threatening to attack his
school was arrested at his apartment in the Phoenix suburb of
Chandler, where officers found a device intended to look like a bomb
but containing no explosives. Later, the case was suspended and he
was not charged because of a lack of evidence.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Writing by Eric M. Johnson;
Editing by Robert Birsel)
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