A plot by two students to carry out a Columbine-style massacre today in their Sacramento County, Ca., high school cafeteria was thwarted after a parent of a classmate tipped off police. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies arrested two 15-year-old students of Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove. Authorities say the suspects planned to target African American students.
The unidentified white suspects, a freshman and a sophomore, reportedly were planning to rob local sporting goods stores, steal weapons, storm the school’s cafeteria, and shoot students during the lunch hour today. Investigators searched the home of one suspect and seized a .22-caliber rifle owned by a parent. Authorities also recovered Nazi-themed drawings and a map of the school cafeteria. School officials said the suspects were also planning to set off explosives. Letters notifying parents were sent home yesterday.
An Elk Grove police officer received the tip early Sunday morning from a parent of a student who knew the suspects were planning violence. “If it wasn’t for him, this thing could have been overlooked very easily,” said an official, who added: “There is definitely a racial component. There was an African American girl who is a student and was a target. And when one is a target, many can be a target. These kids are pretty disturbing.”
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/02/11/MNGGO4TV361.DTL