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Cops: Text messages foil high school bomb plot

By Stephen Loiaconi
updated 5:29 PM EST, Fri January 27, 2012
NEED TO KNOW
  • Two Utah teens accused of plotting to set off bomb at school, steal plane, flee country
  • Suspect reportedly told police he was 'fascinated' with Columbine school shootings
  • Columbine principal talks about meeting suspect in December

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A series of text messages led to the unraveling of a plan by two Utah teens to set off a bomb at their high school and kill their fellow students, police said Friday.

“If I tell you one day not to go to school, make damn sure you and your brother are not there,” one of the texts from a 16-year-old Roy High School student to a classmate said, according to a probable cause statement obtained by CNN.

After receiving that and several other ominous messages, including one about wanting “revenge on the world,” the classmate notified police, who arrested the 16-year-old -- HLN is not identifying due to his age -- and 18-year-old Dallin Morgan on Wednesday.

Roy Police Chief Gregory Whinham detailed the alleged plot to HLN’s Nancy Grace: “One was to actually leave a device inside of an auditorium where a large gathering would be for an assembly… They were going to escape, go to a nearby airport, steal a plane and fly it out to, as they indicated, to a country that wouldn’t send them back to the United States.”

According to court documents, Morgan admitted his role in a plan to kill people at the school when questioned by administrators. The 16-year-old allegedly admitted to police that he had talked about using a bomb at the school.

The document states that the 16-year-old told police he was “fascinated” with the 1999 Columbine High School shootings and had even flown to Colorado to interview the school’s principal. On “Nancy Grace” Friday, Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis confirmed that he spoke to the teen in December and described their conversation.

“He wanted to talk to me about how Columbine healed, you know,” DeAngelis said, “how were we able to overcome the tragedy that occurred … The questions that he asked me were very similar to questions that students that are on our newspaper staff would ask me.”

For more on the alleged high school bomb plot, tune in to “Nancy Grace” Friday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST on HLN.

 

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