Mass. Police Say Foiled Planned School Massacre

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BOSTON (Reuters) - A plan by a teenager to murder teachers and students in April, the same month a massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado took place in 1999, was foiled by the arrest of a Massachusetts student last month, police said on Wednesday.



Police said the 16-year-old, being held without bail in a Massachusetts jail, was arrested after police in Marshfield found maps of the teenager's school that showed gas lines and doorways and evidence that he had exploded bombs in a wooded area and consulted Web sites for information on bomb-making.


Marshfield police chief William Sullivan told a news conference the student had named teachers and students "who were going to be murdered" next April.


In that month in 1999, two students in Columbine, Colorado launched the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, storming their high school with bombs, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons. They murdered 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 before killing themselves.


Police arrested the teenager, who has been charged with being a danger to the community, because he had the "means and opportunity to create a substantial loss of life," Sullivan said. He added that police are still investigating whether the student was plotting alone.


"We believe he was the primary mover but we are checking out others," Sullivan said, adding that the school is now safe.


Marshfield is about 30 miles southeast of Boston.



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