Police in Uvalde, Texas, arrested two teens in 2018 for allegedly plotting a Columbine-style mass shooting to take place in 2022, but there was conflicting information on whether one of the suspects was the same person who killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school Tuesday.
The plot uncovered in 2018 resulted in the arrests of two unidentified teenagers from Uvalde who police said at the time were inspired by the 1999 attack in Columbine, Colorado, in which two students killed 13 people and wounded more than 20. The ages of the teens involved in the four-year-old Uvalde plot would match the shooter in the Tuesday massacre. Rep. Tony Gonzales, (R-Texas), initially said one of the teens arrested in 2018 was Tuesday’s shooter, but later appeared to walk back the connection.
“There are multiple agencies on the ground and I am getting updated information by the minute,” he said in a tweet. “We will continue to revise as we learn more.”
This 2018 press release describes a plot to shoot up a Uvalde school in 2022. (Uvalde Police Department)
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw told reporters Friday the shooter killed on Tuesday was not connected to the 2018 plot.
The 2018 plot was reportedly initially planned for April 20, 2022, the same month and day as the Columbine attack. But the suspects reportedly moved up their plans and intended to carry out the shooting in 2018 at Morales Junior High, which is in the same district as Robb Elementary School.
The teens, ages 13 and 14 at the time, allegedly planned to steal weapons from a neighbor to carry out the attack and had a hit list of students they would kill, according to KSAT. They planned to detonate explosive devices, kill the students on the list, and then kill as many more students as possible before committing suicide.
A student at Morales Junior High learned of the plan and reported it to school officials, who then notified law enforcement authorities, according to MySanAntonio.com.
Uvalde police said the 14-year-old was a student at Morales and the 13-year-old was a former student. Both teens were evaluated by mental health services, police said.
The Daily Wire is not naming the suspect in Tuesday’s attack, nor the suspects who carried out the Columbine shooting as part of a policy to deprive mass shooters of the notoriety that often motivates them.