Two Florida middle school students arrested in alleged school shooting plot, sheriff says



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A grade 8 student at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lehigh Acres was removed from the classroom and searched after the teacher shared the information with school officials, Marcelo said at a conference with press Thursday.

During the search, authorities found no weapons, but found a map of the school showing the location of “each of the school’s interior cameras,” the sheriff said.

Detectives from the Department’s Youth Services Criminal Investigation Division opened an investigation and identified two male students, aged 13 and 14, who Marcelo said were “involved in a conspiracy to carry out a shooting. in a school”.

The investigation found that the teens were interested in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 and were “studying intensively to learn more about the incident and the shooters,” the sheriff continued,

“Detectives also learned that students were trying to learn how to make homemade bombs and buy guns on the black market,” Marcelo said.

Search warrants executed at the students’ homes revealed “a gun and several knives”, among the evidence Marcelo described as “disturbing”.

Students at the school were “safe at all times” during the incident, Lee County School District Superintendent Ken Savage said.

“As soon as the students reported the potential threat, the teacher notified the administrators, who immediately called in the school’s resource manager. Together they emptied the classroom and investigated,” Savage said.

Detectives interviewed the two teenagers and “determined that they both met the assessment criteria at a mental health facility,” Marcelo said.

The teens face charges of conspiracy to commit a mass shooting, according to the sheriff.

In the past, MPs have answered teenage home calls “almost 80 times in total,” the sheriff said.

Marcelo reiterated his department’s commitment to a zero tolerance policy, saying: “Those responsible for threats, real or false, will be held accountable.”

The teens will undergo a psychiatric assessment under Florida’s Baker Act before being transferred to a detention center, a police spokesperson told CNN. The Baker Act allows mental health facilities to detain a person for up to 72 hours for an assessment.

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