Cops: 2 teens planned massacre at Harrison in Colorado Springs

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Thanks to some fairly sharp school employees, a tragedy beyond Virgina Tech was averted. Read on from the local paper's report:

Cops: 2 teens planned massacre at Harrison
Boy charged with conspiracy to commit murder
By DEEDEE CORRELL from the 15 May 07 issue of THE GAZETTE (Colorado Springs)
A Harrison High School student arrested earlier this month after police say he planned a massacre of classmates at a pep rally has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The 17-year-old boy is accused of plotting with a 16-year-old girl to shoot as many students as possible in the gymnasium, with the boy attacking from the right side of the gym and the girl from the left.

The two 11th-graders had blueprints of the south-central Colorado Springs school, and the boy had instructions for making pipe bombs, which they intended to set underneath bleachers, according to a 31-page police report. Their goal, police said, was to kill more than the 32 killed by a gunman April 16 at Virginia Tech before he committed suicide.

The two were arrested several days before a pep rally that was to be attended by the entire student body. “It was chilling,” Colorado Springs school resource officer Brian Strickland said Monday of the details that emerged during his investigation. “There was no doubt something was in the planning stages.” The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said the boy has been released and is not being charged as an adult.

The Gazette isn’t naming him because he’s a juvenile. The girl’s name was withheld. For prosecutors to charge someone as an adult, the case must fit several criteria that take into account the type of charge, age and criminal history, said district attorney spokeswoman Denise Minish. She said she couldn’t comment on the boy’s history. The boy and the girl were initially taken to a juvenile detention facility. It was unclear Monday if the girl was still in custody. Both have been expelled from school.

Colorado Springs police Sgt. Tommy Thompson, who heads the neighborhood policing unit, praised Strickland. “This was a serious one, and we tried to act quickly,” Thompson said. The boy — who was out “to prove that kids are not safe in school,” according to Strickland’s report — also is charged with interference with staff, faculty or students of an educational institution, a misdemeanor. The girl also was charged with interference. “She said their plan was to kill more than 33 students so it would be the biggest in history and so she would be famous,” Strickland wrote in his report. “She gave no specific reason as to why she wanted to kill numerous students, other than she just doesn’t like people in general.”

The girl said the pair hadn’t settled on the time or date of their attack, Strickland wrote, adding that the boy “had mentioned he wanted to wait until he was 18 so that he could buy weapons more easily.” Under Colorado law, no one under 18 can buy a handgun. The boy turns 18 late next month. The girl intended to use her father’s handgun, the report said. Although police said the boy wrote to his girlfriend that he had access to weapons, police didn’t find any. Three students told police the boy tried to recruit them to help, but none reported that to authorities at the time.

Harrison School District 2 Superintendent Mike Miles said school officials encourage students to report threats. Miles said the district sent letters to parents informing them of the arrests. It also canceled the pep rally and brought in bomb-sniffing dogs. Authorities said the plan surfaced April 30, when the boy told his teacher he was having trouble with his girlfriend and wanted to kill people. A school security officer searched the boy’s belongings and found a notebook the boy was using to correspond with his girlfriend — not the girl who was arrested. One entry said he wanted to kill “everyone.” “Why?” the girlfriend wrote back. “Because people piss me off,” he responded. At one point, the girlfriend asked what a massacre would accomplish. “Well, if I do it at a pep assembly, it will be a bigger score than 33. And to prove schools don’t do enough to protect students,” he wrote. “I’ve been planning this since sixth grade.” He later wrote that he was just writing an English paper and was trying to get into the “mindset” of a killer — a claim he repeated to Strickland.

In the boy’s backpack, authorities also found instructions for building a pipe bomb. Asked why he had them, he said he was just curious. Strickland also found a blueprint of the school, which the boy said he needed “to find the exits in case there is a fire drill.” The boy’s mother said “her son would never do anything like that to other people,” according to the police report. Concerned that the next pep rally was scheduled for four days later — May 4 — Strickland arrested the boy.

That night, the Crime Stoppers tip line received an anonymous tip that something bad was going to happen at Harrison and gave the first name of a girl, Strickland said. The next morning, an assistant principal called Strickland to say she had the girl in her office. Strickland said she was “much more forthcoming” than the boy. She said she and the boy had discussed several plans, including attacking during a lockdown drill, according to police. The girl had a copy of the same blueprint the boy had, with the exits and security office marked, police said.

Miles said school officials deserve credit for recognizing the potential threat. “It’s obviously not just a school issue. It’s a social issue; it’s a legislative issue; it’s a police issue,” he said. “I think you’ll find in future years kids who are lost and place a low value on both life and death. I think we’ll see that in our society. I think the Virginia Tech incident brings it into stark relief.” Monday, students’ reactions ranged from frightened to blasé. “Some are scared. Some are just, ‘eh,’” 10th-grader Ariel Piper said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 719- 636-0285 or deedee.correll@gazette.com