Indiana police arrested two teens who were allegedly plotting Columbine-style massacres at several schools.
John L Schultz IV, 18, and Donald V. Robin Jr., 17, were both charged with conspiracy to commit murder as well as intimidation, authorities told ABC57.
A confidential informant told a Rochester police officer that Schultz and his friends were plotting a massacre at school, officials said in an affidavit.
Schultz was waiting for class to restart again because he could then “kill as many as they can and kill themselves just like Columbine,” according to the report. The county prosecutor also said they wanted to mimic the Columbine shooting, WSBT reported.
“Columbine” likely refers to the April 1999 shooting that left 15 dead at Columbine High School in Colorado. Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were identified as the suspects.
Authorities searched the two Indiana teens’ Facebook pages and homes, saying that they posed a threat. Their posts and private messages suggested Schultz and Robin were allegedly planning shootings at Rochester High School and Caston High School, reported WSBT.
Like the Columbine shooters, the two teens also bought trench coats, got tattoos of guns with quotes from the two killers, listened to music about the massacre, and used Klebold and Harris as their profile pictures, prosecutors told the outlet.
“So I mean, anytime anyone’s obsessed with Columbine, yes, it’s a fine line between free speech and when you cross the line, but I think in this case, clearly what they had done was going to interfere with the occupancy of a school,” said Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs.
“I mean, we wouldn’t have asked for a warrant for that, that’s a first amendment freedom,” said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rachel Arndt. “But when it goes so far as to start making a plan and taking an overt act and furtherance of that plan, that’s where we ask for warrants and we do something about it.”
