Maryland teenager to serve one year in prison after writing about school shootings
The teen was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison with all but one year suspended, along with five years of supervised probation upon release, according to the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office. During the probation period, the teen will have to come to court every two weeks, receive mental health treatment, avoid two school campuses and stay off the chatting app Discord.
The 19-year-old was arrested last year after investigators reviewed writings and other material, including internet searches and messages. The defendant was a high school student at the time.
The investigation began after a person contacted police in the Baltimore area, saying he met the teen in a psychiatric facility. The person alerted authorities to the teen's writings, which were labeled a fictional account by their author, according to court records. But investigators wrote that they believed the document was based on the teen's life, not entirely fictional.
The writings, which the teen called a memoir, spanned 129 pages and included an account of a character who plans a school shooting but ultimately is taken into law enforcement custody and then receives psychiatric treatment, according to police.
But the document opened with a disclaimer calling it a work of fiction, according to court papers.
Police later obtained a search warrant and uncovered 'internet searches, drawings and documents related to threats of mass violence,' officials said. Some recent searches included queries about gun ranges, prison sentences and a long list of past school shootings, according to court documents.
Social media messages and posts by the teen also reference a desire to become famous by committing a school shooting, police wrote in charging documents.
Montgomery County Public Schools officials said in a statement that the student was completing schoolwork through a virtual learning program. They said the student 'has not physically attended an MCPS school since the fall of 2022.'
Court records show the teen was hospitalized in December 2022 after threatening to 'shoot up a school,' and the following month clinicians reported that the teen was talking about 'suicide by cop.'
A judge found the teen guilty in January on one count of threatening to commit mass violence following a two-day bench trial.
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