'Hero' Teen Gamer Thwarts 'Mass Casualty' Attack on California School
File photo of a young man gaming, taken at the Comic Con festival, in Moscow, Russia, 2019.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A "hero" gamer seemingly thwarted a plan to carry out a school attack intended to kill more than 100 people.
The Tennessee resident called the Tehama County Sheriff's Office on May 9 to report that a teenager they had been playing online games with was speaking about school violence.
When officers investigated, they found that a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old had built and tested two improvised explosive devices as part of their plans to attack Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, California, Tehama County Sheriff Dave Kain said at a press conference on Tuesday.
"The suspects were hopeful to amass a casualty count in excess of 100 individuals," Kain said.
Both teenagers were arrested for criminal threats, possession of a destructive device, manufacturing a destructive device and conspiracy to commit a felony. They were booked into Tehama County Juvenile Justice Center.
Kain said: "In the end, I'd like to celebrate this young man—this particular young man out of Tennessee—this young hero, and focus the attention of this event on what it deserves to be: that this young man had the courage and heroic instincts to call our agency and notify us in order to mitigate any possible threat to our citizens, and particularly our young people.
"I think this is a good case of where it's evident—if you see something, say something. And in this case, it worked."
More to follow.
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