PORTLAND — An Oregon teenager wrote in a journal that he had a “growing obsession” with shooting up his high school and wanted to kill at least 100 people, police said in a court document.
An officer found the journal in the boy’s bedroom while investigating a threat at Newberg High School, Capt. Chris Bolek of the Newberg-Dundee Police Department wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Police announced the teen’s arrest Tuesday on charges of attempted assault and attempted unlawful use of a weapon. He is being held in the Yamhill County Juvenile Detention Facility in McMinnville. The Associated Press is withholding his name because he’s a minor. Efforts to find an attorney for the teen were unsuccessful Wednesday morning.
According to Bolek, the journal named 20 students and faculty as targets, and included a list of items the boy would need to carry out the attack, including guns, bombs, masks, chains, locks and “lots of ammo.”
The journal contained a map of the school that’s 25 miles southwest of Portland, including where bombs would be placed and gates would be chain-locked. The locked gates were part of the plan to isolate victims in a “kill zone.”
Bolek said he learned that the suspect tried to unlock his mother’s safe to get a firearm and contacted others about obtaining weapons. According to witnesses, the boy initially wanted to attack on the last day of school.
“After realizing that many students would likely not be in school on the last day of school, it was decided that the plan was to be carried out in 70 days,” to ensure the highest number of students would still be in school, Bolek wrote.
Officers interviewed about 30 students, teachers and counselors during the investigation.
Claudia Stewart, spokeswoman for Newberg schools, said the district can’t discuss specifics of an active investigation. She said classes and activities are running as usual, and counselors have been available to students.
