NEW BEDFORD, Mass., Nov. 27 -- A 17-year-old girl was arraigned Tuesday on charges stemming from an alleged plot to carry out a Columbine-style massacre at New Bedford High School.
Three teenage boys arrested previously were arraigned on Monday and ordered held in what police said was a plot to kill "jocks, preps, thugs and faculty" with bombs and guns.
Amy Lee Bowman, a member of what some called a "freak group" of students at the school, appeared with her attorney in District Court and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges. Unlike her alleged cohorts, Bowman was released on probation on the condition she report in daily.
Prosecutor Ray Veary said outside the court that while the three alleged accomplices were ordered held, Bowman was released because "we treat people differently based on circumstances." He declined to confirm Bowman was treated differently because she was cooperating with investigators, or that she may testify against the others.
"I really don't want to discuss that," he said. "We're looking for cooperation from all quarters."
It was Bowman who apparently tipped police off to the plot. According to police reports, Bowman apparently changed her mind about taking part because she did not want a favorite teacher to be killed.
Chilling details of the alleged plot to carry out a massacre like that at Columbine, where a dozen students and a teacher at a Colorado high school were murdered in 1999, were contained in police reports unveiled Monday in court when the three male suspects were arraigned and ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing next week.
Eric McKeehan, 17, his 15-year-old brother and another 15-year-old boy were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and possession of ammunition.
In court documents, Officer Stephen A. Taylor wrote that Bowman told him "the plan was to kill as many students and teachers as possible."
Bowman told Taylor that "things would be loaded at night and the start of the next day in the core of the school (and) they would just start shooting everyone, from teachers to students."
After all the shooting was done, the group planned to go to the roof of the school, smoke pot and drink alcohol, and "After partying for a while, they would all point their guns at each other and shoot each other," Taylor said Bowman told him.
Bowman said the McKeehan brothers had been thinking about the plan since Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris carried out the Columbine school shootings, Taylor reported.
Another suspect, a minor boy, was expected to surrender on Wednesday.
The self-styled gothic "freaks" reportedly were angry at the way they were treated by other students, and talked of "getting everyone back for calling us names and beating us with ugly sticks," according to a note a janitor found last week and turned over to police.
New Bedford Police detective John R. Ribeiro III wrote in a court document that one student told him he, the McKeehan brothers and the other minor suspect, planned "to come into the school with our black trench coats and skip home-room period and go directly to the bathrooms. We would have shotguns and handguns hidden under our coats" and when the bell sounded for students to change classes, "we would come out shooting everyone in sight, from thugs, preps and faculty."
Ribeiro said the student told him "thugs" referred to black and Hispanic students.
The plot came to police attention on Oct. 17 when a female student told a teacher about overhearing others discuss rumors of an attack.
During subsequent police searchers of the suspects' homes, they found plans for making bombs, shotgun shells, spent cartridges, bullets, Satanic writings and photographs of Adolf Hitler.
Police reports said on the wall of one bedroom were written the words, "I hate the world," "Everyone must die," and "Kill everyone."
No guns were found, however.
Because the note the janitor found last week referred to a "Monday" date for the attack, nearly half of the school's 3,300 students stayed home on Monday.
The janitor told the New Bedford Standard-Times that in the letter two students ask each other, "Are you ready? Are you ready for Monday" and that they talk about blowing something up.
New Bedford School Superintendent Joseph S. Silva Jr. said he believes the suspects were serious about carrying out their threats.
"I certainly do believe something would have resulted," he said.
Police Chief Arthur J. Kelly said he believed something serious was planned.
"When you look at the evidence in its totality, absent some intervening force," Kelly said, "in all likelihood they would have done what they said they would." Content: 02001000 05005000 16001000
