A school in George, Utah was the site of a bombing attempt by a student who has now been charged with bringing the homemade bomb into the school.
The boy, who attended Pine View High school located in southern Utah, was alleged to have brought a backpack in containing explosive devices. Smoke began emitting from his backpack, prompting officials to evacuate the school. The evacuation lasted over two hours in which the bomb squad was called, and the FBI came to investigate. That same night, the suspect was arrested, though the police have yet to release the name or age of the alleged perpetrator.
This is not the first trouble for the teen, who officers say is currently facing charges for a previous incident the month before. The teen garnered attention at a previous school for raising the ISIS Islamic State Group flag on the school’s flagpole. This incident occurred in the wake of the Parkland Florida school shooting as numerous other schools were receiving threats of violence. The event occurred on February 15th at Hurricane high school located about a half hour drive from Pine View High School.
Investigators initially had suspected that the raising of the flag, as well as some graffiti found, had been school pranks in response to the Parkland shooting although the suspect now has charges pending relating to that incident. School officials found the American flag had been removed and been replaced with an ISIS flag with the words “ISIS is comi-.” It is believed that something had interrupted the perpetrator and that “coming” was the intended end. In that pending case, the Hurricane police were able to seize items from the student’s home that allegedly tied him to the incident leading to his arrest.
In this latest incident, no injuries occurred, though the backpack had been placed in an area common where many of the students were known to frequent. The backpack was quickly reported to a teacher by another student who then followed evacuation protocols.
After the teen’s arrest, charges were laid for the manufacture, possession, uses, attempted use, or sale of a weapon of mass destruction. While police are keeping the details of the homemade bomb device under wraps as a spokesperson was quoted as stating that the device, “had the potential to cause significant injury or death.” They went on to make a statement regarding the alleged perpetrator saying, “based on our investigation we can confirm this was a failed attempt to detonate a homemade explosive at the school. It was also determined that the male had been researching information and expressing interest in ISIS and promoting the organization.”
When officers made their arrest for the student, they performed a home search that termed up items that they believe could have been used in the creation and assembly of the device that they found in the high school. In addition to the materials possibly used for the creation of the bomb, officials also seized items in the juvenile’s home that showed him researching and expressing interest in the ISIS organization as well as its promotion.
School officials remain shocked as they have never experienced incidents as these every with their larger student body. While police officials are calling the bomb a failed attempt, they have stated that its creation was and could have created great bodily harm and death if the detonation had been accomplished.
~ Liberty Planet
