Teens charged in relation to high school 'bomb plot'

Two teenagers have been charged with conspiring to attack a suburban New York high school on the anniversary of the Columbine attacks after a chilling journal and videotape surfaced in which one teen identifies several potential victims by name, authorities said.

“I will start a chain of terrorism in the world,” a 15-year-old suspected of planning the assault allegedly wrote in the journal, which led to his arrest. “This will go down in history. Take out everyone there. Perfecto.”

Both teenagers were charged with misdemeanour conspiracy, punishable by up to a year in jail.

Authorities said the two suspects, co-workers at a suburban McDonald’s, targeted scores of students in an attack they planned for April 20, 2008 – the ninth anniversary of the Columbine High School rampage, where 12 students and a teacher were killed in Littleton, Colorado.

The two teenagers planned to attack Connetquot High School in Bohemia, about 50 miles east of New York City, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said today.

The 15-year-old was the driving force behind the plan, authorities said, and was recently suspended for making threats of violence.

On July 6, school authorities obtained a handwritten journal that contained “numerous terrorist threats and plans to attack the school on a future date”, police said. The journal was turned over to the school after the 15-year-old dropped it in the McDonald’s car park lot, Dormer said.

Police found that the teenager who wrote the journal had already tried several times to buy weapons online, including five pounds of explosive black powder and an Uzi. Dormer said that officers were still trying to determine “if any weapons have been acquired over the internet”.

The 15-year-old, whose name was withheld due to his age, appeared in juvenile court Friday in handcuffs. The charges were not read, and a plea was not entered. Instead the judge ordered two weeks of medical evaluation at children’s hospital, according to a report posted on Newsday’s website. The teenager’s mother and stepfather were in the courtroom, but would not comment.

The second suspect, 17-year-old Michael McDonough, pleaded not guilty. He was still being held today, according to Suffolk County jail records.

His Legal Aid Society lawyer, Robert Flick, said his client was “barely” culpable in the alleged plot, according to news reports.

A former friend who said she believed she was one of the 15-year-old’s targets told Newsday the suspect was an emotionally troubled boy riveted by violence.

“I do remember him being fascinated about blowing up things,” said Briana Valentino, 15, who said she and the suspect had been close friends before he suddenly became hostile to her a month ago. “I remember him showing me videos of crazy shootings online.”

More than 2,000 students attend Connetquot High School in Bohemia, a working-class community near Brookhaven on the eastern end of Long Island.