Police foil US teen’s plot to kill his family and students

Police said that they prevented an "unimaginable tragedy" by foiling a teenager’s elaborate plot to kill his family and bomb the junior and senior high school in the southern Minnesota city of Waseca.

Police arrested the 17-year-old suspect and charged him in juvenile court with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of possessing explosive or incendiary devices and two counts of criminal damage to property. The charges say he told police he intended to kill “as many students as he could.”

According to the charging documents, the suspect kept a 180-page notebook that detailed his plans. He allegedly told police he planned to shoot his mother, father and sister, then start a fire in a rural field to distract first-responders while he went to the school to set off pressure-cooker bombs in the cafeteria. He also allegedly planned to throw Molotov cocktails, gun down students and kill a school liaison officer while he helped injured students.

He said his ultimate goal was for a SWAT team to kill him.

Captain Kris Markeson told reporters that authorities believe the teenager was acting alone and would have carried out the attack in the next few weeks if he hadn’t been caught.

Markeson said he was disturbed by the amount of guns and other material the youth obtained. He said he could not divulge if specific students were targeted. Police were alerted by a resident who reported a suspicious person at a self-storage facility.

“This case is a classic example of citizens doing the right thing in calling the police when things seem out of place. By doing the right thing, (an) unimaginable tragedy has been prevented,” Markeson said.

The teen allegedly referenced the Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook school shootings in his notebook, and idolised the Columbine shooters.

Police got a break on Tuesday with the tip-off. and an officer found the teen in a storage unit that had numerous materials that could have been used to make bombs.

According to documents, the boy was initially defensive but told officers he would tell them what he was doing if they could guess correctly. When an officer said he was making explosive devices, he said “Yes”.