A Maryland teenager wanted to carry out two school shootings and outlined those plans in a 129-page document that an informant reported to authorities, officials said Thursday.
Alex Ye, 18, of Rockville, was arrested Wednesday for threats of mass violence, the Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release Thursday.
At the heart of the case is the document, which was seized under a search warrant following an investigation by the FBI and police, according to the release.
“In the document, Ye talks about committing a school shooting and strategizes how to carry out the act. Ye also plans to target an elementary school and says he wants to be famous,” police said .
In his writings, Ye allegedly explained that he wanted to attack his old elementary school because “small children are easier targets” and also “strategized on how to gain access to the easier classrooms in his high school,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told reporters. Gaithersburg Friday.
Despite these plans for a mass shooting, Ye wrote that his true desire was to become a serial killer.
“You also wrote that he wanted to become a serial killer instead of a mass murderer because serial killers are much more romanticized,” Jones added.
Police have been investigating Ye since early March and only arrested him this week over concerns he might actually carry out the plans.
“Our goal is not to make an arrest in every threat case,” Jones said, adding that his agency has worked on 140 indicators of possible school violence in this school year alone.
“But this case is different. This case is completely different – this takes it to another level. It was a concerned witness who brought this case to light by reporting the suspect’s manifesto to authorities.”
Investigators also discovered research, drawings and documents on the Internet “related to mass threats of violence,” according to the statement.
Police added that security had been increased at schools following the investigation, particularly at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, where Ye had attended in person before being sent to a series of hospitals psychiatric.
Authorities first became aware of the document — which Ye called a “memoir” — after being contacted by an informant named in court records only as “Witness Number One.” The person spent time in a mental institution with Ye, who said the memoir was a fictionalized account of a high school shooting.
According to court records, the brief opens with a disclaimer that says: “This does not constitute a threat of violence nor does it represent the beliefs of the author.” »
But its contents were enough to alarm authorities, and court records allege Ye exposed at least five people at Wootton High School “to a substantial risk of death or serious injury if the threat was carried out.”
“It appears that the ‘manifesto’ has elements of fiction and non-fiction and is based in reality with a plan for threats of mass violence,” officials said in court documents.
Ye allegedly wrote that he wanted to shoot up his school with an AR-15, targeting the elementary school because little kids are easier targets, wanting to be famous, and wanting to set the record for most kills.
His Internet searches included shooting ranges “near me” and searches for school shootings, including at Sandy Hook and Parkland, prosecutors said. He was also part of a Discord chat group with others focused on glorifying school shootings, the charging document states.
Ye was hospitalized starting in December 2022 for threatening to “shoot up the school” and for having homicidal and suicidal ideation, according to court records. It’s unclear why Ye was released the following month, as court records indicate it was determined he was still preoccupied with school shootings, self-harm and explosives.
Ye had not attended school since fall 2022, a public school spokesperson said, but had continued his studies through a distance learning program.
A gun, belonging to Ye’s father, was found locked in the family’s home during a police search, Jones said. But the suspect did not appear to have access to a weapon.
Still, authorities said they believed Ye posed a legitimate threat.
“Even after he was kicked out of school, Ye said he could do something after he graduated because he lived near the school,” Jones said Friday.
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News Source : www.nbcnews.com
