Okla. teen accused in school shooting plot

• Tweet

BARTLESVILLE, Okla., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma teen was jailed under $1 million bail for allegedly trying to recruit schoolmates in a plot to shoot up and bomb their high school, authorities say.

Police allege in a court affidavit that Sammie Eaglebar Chavez, 18, tried to enlist other students in a massacre scheme Wednesday in the Bartlesville High School cafeteria. He was arrested Friday and charged with planning, attempting or conspiring to perform an act of violence, the Tulsa World reported.

Washington County District Judge Curtis DeLapp set his bail at $1 million.

"Sammie tried to recruit other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the school auditorium where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the doors shut," Bartlesville Police Lt. Kevin Ickleberry wrote in the affidavit.

"He also told them that if the students assisting him did not do what they were supposed to do, he would not hesitate to kill them and/or himself."

Police learned of the plot Thursday afternoon when notified by school administrators who had been alerted by a student, the affidavit stated. Chavez wasn't in school Thursday.

Chavez allegedly told students he would place bombs by the auditorium doors and detonate them when police showed up.

Police allege Chavez told a teacher last week he had bought a Colt .45-caliber gun and had practiced firing it.

He also allegedly tried to obtain a map or diagram of the high school facilities, used a school computer to search for information about a rifle and researched how to make pipe bombs and about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.

Bartlesville High parents were warned Friday that administrators had learned of a rumor about a student "was planning to potentially harm students and staff."