OAN’s James Myers
Updated 3:22pm – Friday, April 19, 2024
A transgender Maryland high school student is accused of planning a school shooting to gain fame, police said.
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This student is biologically female and identifies as a transgender male. Her previous name was “Andrea”.
Alex Yeh, 18, of Rockville, wanted to carry out two school shootings. Ye outlined these plans in a 129-page document that the tipster reported to authorities, officials said Thursday.
The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) announced in a statement Thursday that an 18-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of threatening gang violence.
“In the document, Ye writes about school shootings and strategizes how to carry out the act. Ye also considers targeting elementary schools and says he wants to be famous. ”, police said.
According to the indictment, a witness, referred to as Witness 1, contacted Baltimore police and said Yeh had sent a message on Instagram saying, “I just finished writing a book.” The 18-chapter book was a fictional story about a mass shooting at a high school, according to court documents.
An eyewitness said the book suggested the shooting would occur “the next day,” and told police there was “a striking resemblance between the main character (James Wan) and Ye.”
In the documents, Ye said he wanted to attack the former elementary school because “young children are easy targets,” and that he was “strategizing on how to access the easiest classrooms at the high school.” “, Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told reporters in Gaithersburg. on friday.
“This situation highlights the critical importance of vigilance and community involvement to prevent potential tragedies,” Jones said, adding that the collaborative efforts of brave witnesses and authorities “helped prevent potential tragedies.” “A potentially catastrophic event was prevented,” he added.
Despite these gruesome details, Ye expressed a true desire to “become a serial killer.”
“I also wrote that you’d rather be a serial killer than a mass murderer because serial killers are more glamorized,” Jones added.
Meanwhile, police had been investigating Ye since March, but decided to arrest him out of concern that students might actually turn to shooting.
“It’s not our goal to make an arrest in every case of intimidation,” Jones said, adding that his agency has worked on 140 tips about possible school violence this school year alone.
“But this case is different. This case is completely different, which means it has been taken to another level.” He was a witness to this.”
Investigators also found search history, drawings and documents “related to large-scale threats of violence,” the statement said.
The indictment states that Ye was hospitalized in December 2022 for threatening to “shoot up the school.” Ye was also reportedly scheduled to be released in January 2023, but it was determined that Ye was still preoccupied with explosives, self-harm, and school shootings.
Later, after an emergency evaluation, Ms. Yeh was referred to a crisis center by a therapist at Wootton High School after Montgomery police learned of a BB gun that had been purchased for the purpose of “suicide by cop.”
Yeh was detained and charged with threatening mass violence. The transgender boy is currently being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit awaiting a bail hearing.
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