Teens Arrested In H.S. Bomb Plot
Three 16-year-old students were under house arrest Friday after police picked them up for allegedly plotting a bomb attack on their rural western New York high school.
They allegedly had talked about killing students, teachers and emergency personnel in an attack similar to the 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School that left 15 people dead.
Police in Eden, New York, 20 miles south of Buffalo, took them into custody Thursday afternoon. The father of one of the boys was also arrested on disorderly conduct charges for verbally insulting investigators during the boys' arrests.
As a condition for releasing the boys in their custody, the parents agreed to turn over any weapons in their homes. Police said a total of seven guns were turned in by two households.
Police said there was no evidence the boys had planned to use any of those weapons.
The boys, who were described by police as being at the top of their class, popular, and involved in student clubs and athletics, were charged with second-degree criminal solicitation and are due in court Tuesday.
"Apparently they'd been talking about it for three weeks," Police Chief Patrick Howard told the Buffalo News. He said initially, the three were planning a shooting on the anniversary of the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
Howard said the youths never brought firearms to Eden Junior-Senior High School.
Police began their investigation more than a week ago after rumors surfaced at the 800-student school that a plan for the attack was being written in notebooks.
The suspects' names were not released because of their age.
"It started out over two boys talking, and I think it just led to, 'what do you think if we did this, what do you think if we did that,' and it was overheard by students," said Eden police officer John McCarthy at a news conference on Friday. But McCarthy said police would release little detail of the event.
School Superintendent Robert Zimmerman said the Erie County District Attorney's office is investigating while school officials conduct their own investigation to determine the punishment the students might face.
"We're still making sure there's nobody else out there; that's why we can't give you that information," McCarthy said.
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