A Maryland teenager was arrested after law enforcement uncovered a plot to commit school shootings, officials said Friday.
Andrea Ye, 18, of Rockville, who goes by Alex, is alleged to have written a 129-page manifesto detailing the strategy to commit a mass shooting at Thomas Wootton High School in Montgomery County. You were arrested on Wednesday.
Investigators discovered the alleged plot through a review of Ye’s writings and Internet searches, authorities said. In the manifesto, Ye reportedly wrote about attacking a primary school and expressed a desire to “become famous.”
“You also wrote that he wanted to be a serial killer instead of a mass murderer, because serial killers are much more romanticized,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told reporters during a news conference on Friday.
ARREST MADE IN 2017 MURDER OF DC POLICE OFFICER
In the manifesto, Ye said he wanted to attack his former primary school because “small children are easier targets,” authorities said. He spent time in Discord chats with others who glorified school shootings, authorities said.
READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP
“He clearly had mental health issues, and I think it would be worthwhile to find out when we might have known, or when we might have had to intervene,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said. “Maybe we intervened at the right time, but at a very late point in the process. Hopefully this will lead us to look more deeply at what we are doing in the field of mental health.”
Ye, a former Wootton High School student, is also said to have targeted an elementary school over a possible shooting. Ye was hospitalized in December 2022 after threatening to “shoot up a school,” and the following month, doctors reported that the teen talked about “suicide by cop.”
“This person wanted to become famous by shooting innocent children. That is pure evil,” Nicole Parker, a former FBI agent and Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital.
Parker noted that Saturday will mark the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, which left 12 students and one teacher dead.
“What a tragedy, because it was the first major mass school shooting in my memory,” she said. “Law enforcement has failed to stop many school shootings since then, but I am grateful and relieved to hear that this shooting at Wootton High School was prevented thanks to sound police work.”
Authorities first learned about Ye when the manifesto was shared in March by someone who knew Ye in a mental health facility at the Baltimore County Police Department. The tipster is referred to as “Witness-One” in the charging documents. Ye claimed the manifesto was a fictional account of a school shooting.
The tipster told investigators they noticed similarities between the story’s transgender protagonist and Ye, the documents state. His Internet search history turned up search terms such as “shooting ranges near me” and searches for school shootings, including the massacres in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida.
During a search of the family home, a gun belonging to Ye’s father was found, but Ye did not appear to have access to the weapon, Jones said.
“This could well be a case in which the difficulty of obtaining guns prevented him from getting a gun when he wanted to, and possibly prevented him from acting once he would have preferred to do so,” Elrich said, referring to the Maryland’s strict gun laws. .
Ye was formally enrolled at Wootton High School but had not physically attended a Montgomery County Public School institution since the fall of 2022, Fox DC reported. He is taking classes through the Online Pathways to Graduation virtual program.
“Andre Ye had not been to school in person for a while,” Parker said. “That particularly stood out to me. This could have led to feelings of isolation, which may have contributed to decisions and motivations for planning these potential targeted acts of violence.”
Ye has been charged with making threats of mass violence and is currently being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit awaiting a bond hearing.
Authorities said security has been increased at Montgomery County schools, particularly at Wootton High School.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original article source: A Maryland teen allegedly plotted school shootings in a 129-page manifesto featuring a transgender protagonist
