Skip to main content

Pennsylvania 'school shooting plot' foiled after police find arsenal of weapons in teenager's bedroom

A classmate allegedly overheard the suspect threatening to shoot four students
Uniontown Area Senior High School in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in an image from Google street view, 2013.
Just days after high school shootings in Texas and Kentucky, an alleged school shooting plot in Pennsylvania has been thwarted.
Police found multiple guns and machetes in a 14-year-old high school student’s bedroom after receiving a tip from one of the suspect’s classmates.
According to officials, the classmate allegedly overheard the suspect threatening to shoot four students at Uniontown Area Senior High School, located about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
The student who overheard the conversation recorded it, said Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower, according to CBS News. The person then told their parents, who contacted police. 
When authorities went to the suspect's home, they found an arsenal of weapons in his bedroom including a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun, two machetes, throwing knives, two lever-action rifle, a revolver, a crossbow with arrows, and bulk ammunition for all of the weapons.
It is unclear how the suspect obtained the weapons.
“Quite frankly the parent and the child who reported this are the heroes,” Mr Bower said at a news conference. “Had they not reported this, there could have been a major catastrophe at Uniontown High School.” 
Asked about why the suspect allegedly wanted to target the four students, Mr Bower responded: “He didn't like them. That's what he said, he didn't like them. What a reason to do something.”
The teen suspect was arrested and is being charged with making terroristic threats, possession of a firearm by a minor, and criminal attempt to commit catastrophe, according to CBS.
He is being held in a juvenile detention centre and his parents are cooperating with police.
​Uniontown Area High School released a statement to the station saying that “security has increased throughout a number of our schools today.”
“The district would like to thank the Pennsylvania State Police, the Uniontown City Police, as well as our students, parents and staff members for their assistance and efforts to ensure a safe and productive day of education,” it said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mrs Len Burton was a Cotswolds mother of three renowned for her perfect scones - but was also a colonel in Russian intelligence who sent Britain's atomic secrets from her privy

Ben Macintyre's book Agent Sonya tells the story of Soviet spy Colonel Ursula Kuczynski Ben Macintyre's book Agent Sonya tells story of  Colonel Ursula Kuczynski  She lived in Oxfordshire hamlet Great Rollright and was known as Mrs Burton  The spy was on active duty and had radio transmitter tuned to Soviet intelligence She fled to East Berlin in 1950 and retired as a spy before dying in 2000 aged 93 Her scones were the envy of the Oxfordshire hamlet of Great Rollright, where the friendly woman known as Mrs Burton lived in a stone farmhouse. In her late 30s, she moved there with her three children and husband Len just after the end of World War II.  She had a faint foreign accent but the locals took no notice and she soon became a stalwart of village life. They were unaware of the massive secret she was hiding — one that even now, 75 years later, had me reeling in amazement at the audacity and ingenuity it involved on her part.  And the unforgivable treache...

Parents charged in horrific murder of their 4-year-old daughter who was boiled alive on New Year's day

                      A Michigan couple has been charged with one of the most heinous murders that is being referred to as the "worst child death case" ever after their 4-year-old daughter died in a "scalding bath" in Michigan. Candice Diaz, 24, and Brad Fields, 28, were charged with murder, torture, and child abuse and both denied bail. Gabrielle died on New Year's Day after living a life filled with abuse. Doctors say she suffered multiple injuries, including severe burns on her limbs after she was in a bath with scalding hot water. A medical practitioner, who examined Gabrielle Barrett's body, described the alleged murder as the "worst child death case" in 27 years of his career, according to a court document. The document also allegedly states that the four-year-old was burned so badly that her big toe fell off, and police found melted skin in the drain. Gabrielle's mother, Diaz, and her partner, Fi...

Covid-19 patient 'is raped by an ambulance driver while being taken to hospital' in India

A 19-year-old girl was allegedly raped by an ambulance driver on her way to the hospital after she tested positive for COVID-19.    The teenage girl was reportedly attacked by a man known as V Noufal, 29, while on their way to the Firstline Covid Treatment Centre in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, India, on Saturday night, September 5.   Noufal was arrested on Sunday morning September 6, after the victim told a staff of the hospital about the alleged incident when she arrived in Pandalam.    After his arrest, Police said he had not obtained the mandatory clearance certificate before joining as a driver.   Health Minister KK Shailaja described the attack in Kerala as 'shocking' and 'inhuman'.    A health department official told The Indian Express that the driver is usually sent alone to a particular locality to pick up patients to limit the exposure of health workers.    The official said: 'The driver’s chambe...