Police recovered multiple guns and machetes from a Pennsylvania high school student’s bedroom Thursday night after a classmate allegedly overheard the student threatening a mass shooting, officials said.
The alleged plot — which was uncovered Thursday — called for an attack to take place today, just days after high school shootings in Kentucky and Texas this week, officials said.
The investigation began Thursday night when Pennsylvania State Police received a report that a teen on a school bus discussed killing four students he didn’t like at Uniontown Area Senior High School, Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower said at a news conference.
The teen who reported the threat had overheard the conversation and recorded it, Bower said.
State police responded to the 14-year-old suspect’s home where they took statements from the student and parents, determining that the student was “threatening to come to school today with weapons with rifles and shoot four students,” Bower said.
Bower said, “He indicated that it would be extremely easy to sneak a gun into the school in his backpack. And he also indicated that he could use a sniper rifle from a distance, or use a shotgun for mass casualties.”
A search warrant was obtained and police found multiple weapons in the teen’s bedroom: a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun, two machetes, throwing knives, two lever-action rifles, a revolver, a cross bow, “and bulk ammunition for all of the weapons,” Bower said.
The teen was taken into custody Thursday night and remains in custody with juvenile authorities, Bower said, adding that his parents are cooperating. He is being charged with terroristic threats, possession of a firearm by a minor and criminal attempt to commit catastrophe at the high school, Bower said.
“A catastrophe” was likely “averted today,” Bower said. “Thank God” the parent and child called, he added.
He said there were extreme precautions at the high school today, including a trooper riding on the bus where the threat was allegedly discussed.
