Five students arrested in foiled southeast Kansas school shooting
MARCUS KABEL
Associated Press

RIVERTON, Kan. - Five teenage boys accused of plotting to kill other students in a shooting rampage at their southeast Kansas high school were arrested Thursday after details of the alleged scheme appeared on the Web site MySpace.com.

Cherokee County sheriff's deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one of the suspects, Sheriff Steve Norman said. In two of the suspects' school lockers, authorities found documents about firearms and references to Armageddon, he said.

Four suspects were arrested at their homes, two as early as 12:30 a.m. The fifth suspect was arrested at the school Thursday afternoon.

Norman said he would seek charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder against the young men, who range in age from 16 to 18.

Attorney General Phill Kline, whose office took over prosecution of the case at the request of the Cherokee County attorney, said charges against the five likely would be announced Friday, when the suspects are expected to appear in court. He said no decision had been made on whether to charge the four suspects younger than 18 as adults or juveniles.

In a news conference Thursday evening, Kline refused to discuss any details about the plot, how officers found out about it, or if other homes had been searched.

"All I would say is that law enforcement was fully justified in its action," Kline said.

Kline said the community, the school and the students are safe and school would resume on Friday.

Deputies' interviews with the suspects indicated they planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school's camera system before starting the attack between noon and 1 p.m. Thursday, Norman said. The suspects apparently had been plotting since the beginning of the school year, he said.

"What the resounding theme is: They were actually going to do this," Norman said.

He said officials at Riverton High School, which has about 270 students, began investigating Tuesday after learning that a threatening message had been posted on MySpace.com.

Elementary School Principal Keith Wilson, who was standing guard at the door of the school while pupils were inside for after-school activities, said nothing like this has happened at the school in his 46 years living in Riverton.

"But if you don't think it can happen in your town, it can," he said. "I don't think you can ever really prepare for something like this."

The message discussed the significance of April 20, which is Adolf Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School attack in Colorado, in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher, wounded 24 others, then committed suicide.

"The message, it was brief, but it stated that there was going to be a shooting at the Riverton school and that people should wear bulletproof vests and flak jackets," Norman said in a telephone interview.

A spokeswoman for Myspace.com did not immediately respond to a request for a statement from the company.

School officials identified the student who posted the message and talked to several of his friends, Norman said.

But Riverton school district Superintendent David Walters said the significance of the threat didn't become clear until Wednesday night, after a woman in North Carolina who had chatted with one of the suspects on Myspace.com contacted authorities in her state, who contacted the Cherokee County sheriff's department. The woman had received more specific information that there would be about a dozen potential victims, at least one of whom was a staff member.

Norman said some potential victims were popular students and that the suspects, whom he described as "different," may have been bullied.

"I think there was probably some bullying, name calling, chastising," he said.

Holly Thornton, 18, who works at the Riverton Quik-Stop across the street from the school where she graduated last year, said she was shaken up when she got word of the plot.

"I think this is terrible," she said. "I was terrified for my sister because she's in eighth grade."

Riverton, along what once was the famed Route 66 in southeast Kansas, is a tiny, unincorporated area in near the Missouri line. It has a convenience store and no real industry to speak of aside from its main landmark, an Empire District Electric Co. power plant.

Norman said the suspects' parents were not aware of the plot.

In interviews with sheriff's deputies, the potential victims said some of the suspects had threatened them at school, Norman said. He also said investigators had learned the suspects were computer buffs who liked violent video games.

Walters said he visited the school Thursday to talk to students and staff.

"I specifically asked a girl if she felt safe and she said, 'Yes.'"

Barbara Gibson, 17, a junior at the high school, said her classmates didn't seem too bothered by the threat during the day.

"A lot of people just talked about it," she said. "But there wasn't much reaction."

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Associated Press Writer Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

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