A US teenager who intended to blow up his school will be charged with attempted aggravated murder after six bombs were found in his bedroom, a prosecutor said late on Saturday.
Grant Acord, 17, planned to attack his school in Oregon in a plot “forged and inspired” by a 1999 mass shooting at a high school in Columbine, Colorado, Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson said.
Acord is to be charged as an adult and also faces six counts of manufacturing and possessing a destructive device after investigators found the six bombs in a secret compartment in his bedroom, Haroldson said.
Acord was taken to a juvenile jail on Thursday night after police received a tip that the youth was making a bomb to blow up West Albany High School.
Acord had written plans, a checklist and a specific timeline for the attack, Haroldson said. The bombs investigators found included pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, a Drano bomb and a napalm bomb, he added.
Police found no bombs during a search of the high school.
Haroldson declined to provide the specific date Acord allegedly planned to attack the school, but said it would be included in court paperwork to be filed after the weekend.
Haroldson said he was not aware the youth had any major problems, such as a suspension, at school.
“In any case that you have a young person who in essence plans to take a video game approach to killing people at school, you have to take a close look at the mental health issues,” he said.
“And the process will certainly provide for that once he’s represented by counsel,” Haroldson said.
Telephone listings did not appear to be available for either of the boy’s parents to reach them for comment on Saturday. The district attorney said it did not appear the teenager was targeting a specific person or group.
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