Two Eighth Grade boys are in police custody in Florida and stand accused of plotting a “Columbine-style” school shooting at their own school.
The incident began on Sept. 8 when a student told a teacher at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lehigh Acres that a classmate had a gun in his backpack, ABC News reported.
The teacher notified the school resource officer, and the boys were detained, the Evening Standard reported.
Authorities and school administrators searched the accused student’s backpack and found no gun.
But Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during a press conference on Sept. 9 that a map was found on one of the boys that “contains markings indicating the location of each of the school’s interior cameras,” ABC News reported.
Sheriff Marceno said an investigation determined that 13-year-old Conner Pruett and 14-year-old Phillip Byrd were “involved in a plot to carry out a school shooting,”
Both students were already known to authorities, ABC News reported.
#BREAKING: Minutes ago the two teens accused of plotting a mass shooting at Harns Marsh Middle were just released from a mental health facility. Connor Pruitt and Phillip Byrd will be taken to a juvenile detention center now @NBC2 pic.twitter.com/oJz0P14eo5
— Cristina Mendez (@CrisMendezTV) September 11, 2021
Deputies had visited the two boys’ homes a combined 80 times in the past.
Sheriff Marceno said the pair had been “extensively studying” the 1999 Columbine High School shooting during which two teen gunman murdered 13 people, ABC News reported.
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The sheriff said Pruett and Byrd were also trying to learn how to build pipe bombs.
A search of their homes turned up what Sheriff Marceno called “disturbing evidence, including a gun and several knives,” according to ABC News.
BREAKING @SheriffLeeFL announces 2 Harns Marsh Middle School students in Lehigh Acres FL arrested for plotting a mass shooting at school.
— Honor with Action Coalition (@Honor_W_Action) September 9, 2021
Teacher got tip that 8th grader had gun in their backpack. Deputies didn't find gun but the student had a detailed map of school cameras. pic.twitter.com/uwt0mbRoh8
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