John David LaDue has been identified as the high school junior who planned for months to kill his family before setting off bombs at the junior and senior high school in Waseca, MN.
The 17-year-old allegedly told police he planned to shoot his mother, father and sister, then start a fire in a rural field to distract first-responders while he went to the school to set off pressure-cooker bombs in the cafeteria. He also allegedly planned to throw Molotov cocktails, gun down students and kill a school liaison officer while he helped injured students.
He said his ultimate goal was for a SWAT team to kill him.
The teen allegedly referenced the Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook school shootings in his notebook, and idolized the Columbine shooters.
Police got a break Tuesday with the tip. An officer found the teen in a storage unit that had numerous materials that could have been used to make bombs.
According to the documents, the boy was initially defensive but told officers he would tell them what he was doing if they could guess correctly. When an officer guessed he was making explosive devices, he allegedly said “Yes” and agreed to speak. He allegedly told police he would have shot the responding officer if he had brought a gun to the storage unit.
He told police he had ammunition, guns and bombs in his bedroom and provided a key to his gun safe to officers. Police recovered seven firearms, ammunition and three functional bombs from the boy’s home, along with black clothing and a ski mask, KARE-TV reported.
Capt. Kris Markeson told reporters that authorities believe the teenager was acting alone and would have carried out the attack in the next few weeks if he hadn’t been caught. The criminal complaint says that LaDue originally planned the attack for April 20, the anniversary of Columbine, but his plans were thwarted because that was Easter Sunday, meaning there was no school.
“This case is a classic example of citizens doing the right thing in calling the police when things seem out of place. By doing the right thing, (an) unimaginable tragedy has been prevented,” Markeson said.
Chelsie Schellhas was identified as the caller. She was washing dishes when she noticed a boy with a backpack and a fast-food bag walking through her back yard toward the storage units nearby.
“He walked through the puddles when there was a perfectly good road he could have walked on,” she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “It just didn’t seem right to me because we see people come and go with their trucks, and they don’t come on foot and cut through people’s back yards. It was like he was blatantly trying not to be seen. That’s why I thought it was odd.”
Students, parents and community members stand in the back of the room to listen as Waseca Police Captain Kris Markeson and Waseca school Superintendent Tom Lee speak at a news conference about the 17-year-old arrested in a plot to kill his family and massacre students. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe)
A search warrant was issued to search this storage facility in Waseca in connection with a 17-year-old who was arrested in plot to kill family and massacre students at Waseca school. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe)
She continued observing him and noticed several other oddities, leading her to call police.
Police arrested the 17-year-old suspect Tuesday and charged him in juvenile court Thursday with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of possessing explosive or incendiary devices and two counts of criminal damage to property. The charges say he told police he intended to kill “as many students as he could.”
KTOE-AM reports that Waseca County prosecutors filed a motion Friday, asking that the teen be charged as an adult. A hearing is set for May 12.
A community meeting was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Friday so that school officials could communicate to families of students at the high schools their plans for moving forward.
Parents of students at the school said that they were disturbed by what happened.
“It’s just too scary to put in words,” said one parent, who asked to remain anonymous.
“Everybody in town feels sick to their stomach. Scared. There were tears today.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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