Police in Washington May Have Thwarted School Shooting

Washington state authorities say they may have thwarted a potential school shooting after arresting a 13-year-old boy with violent intentions and access to a sizable weapons cache at his home. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office, which covers the Tacoma area, acted on a Friday tip about the boy's alleged threats to kill, his access to firearms, and his apparent fixation on mass shooters, ABC News reports.

Officers searched the teen's residence early Saturday, discovering a mix of secured and unsecured guns, loaded magazines marked with phrases referencing infamous school shootings—including Columbine—and writings that, according to police, outlined mass shooting scenarios. The search also turned up clothing and social media posts pointing to a "fascination of recent school shootings/mass casualty attacks," including the 2022 Uvalde mass shooting, according to court documents.

• "It appeared that there are ... about 40 different firearms, mainly long guns, rifles, many of them appear to be homemade, using a 3D printer type style, and a handful of handguns," sheriff's office spokesperson Carly Cappetto tells KIRO. She says the teen wasn't in possession of all the guns, but he had access to them. "From what I've learned from the detectives, they went into that home, and there were just the negligence of firearms lying around the home and just hanging on the wall, completely free access to anybody to grab," she says.

Investigators say they also found fireworks and explosive materials in the home. The teen last attended school in 2021, when he was around 9 years old, the Tacoma Tribune reports. The sheriff's office says he's been unenrolled since then. He now faces multiple charges: attempted threat to bomb or injure a school, unlawful firearm possession, and unlawful possession of fireworks. Franklin Pierce School District, where the boy was once a student, said it was notified of that a "young person in our community was arrested for allegedly planning a school shooting" and is coordinating with law enforcement to ensure the community's safety.

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