Teenager held over plot to kill dozens in school suicide bomb
Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested on Saturday after his parents called police when 10lbs of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield, South Carolina.
Police chief Randall Lear said a diary kept by Schallenberger for more than a year described plans to make several bombs and including maps of Chesterfield High School.
The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.
Schallenberger planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at the school, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, said Mr Lear.
Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.
“The only thing left was delivering the bombs,” said the police chief.
Meanwhile, the high school will be on red alert when students return. Pupils will walk through metal detectors borrowed from a court and bomb and drug sniffing dogs have been called in.
He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Mr Lear said: “He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him — the rich boys with good-looking girlfriends.”
The teenager was in the Chesterfield County jail yesterday, charged with possessing materials to make bombs.
