Two teenagers in Florida have been accused of planning to carry out a school shooting.
During a press conference on Thursday, as reported by Meredith Deliso for ABC News, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said that a teacher from Harns Marsh Middle School in Lehigh Acres had received “concerning information” on Wednesday about an eighth grade student. The information given to the teacher alleged that the student in question was “possibly in possession” of a gun in his book bag. From there, the teacher alerted a school resource officer, as well as school administrators, prompting the removal of the student from class.
An administrative search was performed, per Marceno, with no weapon ultimately discovered in the bag. Found in the bag, however, was a map of the school featuring locations for each of the facility’s interior cameras. Detectives are then said to have identified two students allegedly involved “in a plot to carry out a school shooting.” The students in question are aged 13 and 14.
Also during Thursday’s presser, video of the search of one of the students’ homes was excerpted, noticeably including footage of a displayed Confederate flag emblazoned with the phrase “the south will rise again.” Marceno also alleged that the students “took an interest” in the Columbine High School mass shooting of 1999.
Other items found during the searches included guns and knives. Additionally, the teens were allegedly researching how to construct pipe bombs and looking into methods of illegally purchasing weapons. Both teens will be charged with conspiracy to commit a mass shooting.
“We were one second away from a Columbine here,” Marceno said.
Complex has reached out to reps for the Lee County school district and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for additional comment.
In a tweeted message shared Thursday afternoon, Lee County Superintendent Kenneth Savage thanked school staff members and the sheriff’s department for carrying out actions that “saved lives.”
