A Maryland high school student was arrested and charged with threat of mass violence after police say they discovered evidence revealing the teen had plans to commit a school shooting, authorities said Thursday.

The arrest on Wednesday came after authorities discovered a 129-page document they say was written by 18-year-old Alex Ye, the Montgomery County Department of Police said in a news release Thursday.

Authorities learned of the writings following an exchange Ye had via Instagram messaging with an unidentified person who felt a school shooting was “imminent,” according to the teenager’s arrest warrant. The unidentified person knew Ye from an inpatient treatment at a local psychiatric facility, the warrant says.

Ye referred to the writings as “his memoir,” which begins with a disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, the arrest warrant says.

  • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I love how they never say why the kid says he was going to shoot up the school. Couldn’t be because of being horribly bullied… Naw.

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I don’t think bullying alone would make one write a 129 page manifesto about shooting up an elementary school, unless of course the 18 year old was being bullied by 4th graders.

    • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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      7 months ago

      Literally doesn’t matter. There is no amount of bullying that justifies you murdering another person and especially if that also involves killing or scaring innocent bystanders. If you think a school shooting is a valid response to being bullied, you are a piece a shit that deserves to he bullied.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        It’s not about justifying it, it’s about understanding the conditions that cause people to want to shoot up a school in the first place.

        • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Yup. And I think we need to make more honest attempts to ignore opinions like two posts above just rage reacting. It doesn’t help anything and just further alienates us from finding the truth cause it’s shrugged off as insane.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Nobody has ever suggested that something like this is justified. You’re reacting viscerally to someone suggesting that we try to understand the context in which this person developed, what motivates them, etc. That sort of information can be helpful to understand what drives people to these sorts of behaviors and how they can be helped.

        • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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          7 months ago

          If this kid turns out to be bullied, it has the same relevance as him playing call of duty. There are literally millions of bullied kids in the world and only some of them shoot up a school.

          When columbine happened the media had this narrative about the kids being bullied and it being some kind of revenge on the school. They weren’t bullied, they were just anti-social sadsacks and psychopaths. But the narrative probably inspired a couple of the following thousands of shootings.

          • stoly@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            You seem to have this strange view on bullying as if it can’t destroy a person. In fact people never recover from it. Some empathy is deserved here.

            • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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              7 months ago

              I have gallons of empathy for people that are bullied. That all goes away when they murder people. Lots of kids get brutally bullied and they don’t murder anyone. Murder is not a natural reaction to being bullied.

              Empathy is Especially not deserved here where the “kid” is fucking 18 and wrote about attacking a middle school.

              • stoly@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                I should think that it’s possible to show empathy towards a person while simultaneously condemning their actions. They are not exclusive from one another. You’re still deciding who deserves or does not deserve empathy, but everyone who has ever lived deserves empathy.

                • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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                  7 months ago

                  Yes, I am deciding who deserves sympathy. School shooters is not in that group.

                  The “oh he was a tortured soul, if only someone had seen him” schtick makes the narcissistic little fuckers rock hard.

                  You dont give serial killers cool names and you dont give school shooters any attention outside of being sad losers. That is the responsible thing to do.

      • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        Fucking lmao

        “You believe violence is a justified response to being bullied? You deserve to be bullied.”

        Dumbass

        • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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          7 months ago

          Did I say violence or did I perhaps say murder? Sorry but I don’t think the correct reaction to being bullied is to murder a bunch of 10 year olds, not even if they are shitty 10 year olds.

    • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      High school student writes 129 pages about how he wants to shoot up an elementary school and you think bullying is the cause?

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      That implies the are justifications for shooting up a school that are valid.

      There are no such justifications, so the reason doesn’t matter

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        7 months ago

        The reason matters for the purposes of prevention in future cases. Yeah in the case in question the reason is irrelevant although it probably should be known.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          I guess I prefer that manifestos are not released immediately or to the general public due to copycats. Only investigators or school administrators need that information quickly.

          Parents should be educated on proper parenting wrt disturbed kids

          • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            I find all forms of censorship bad tbh. So I’d prefer they are released so we can learn from and help people like this better in the future to prevent more attacks. But it’s a double sided issue. Similar to documents on how to make explosives.

            • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              But copycat phenomena is a real thing.

              It shouldn’t be illegal to access the information, it just doesn’t need to be shouted out by the talking heads the day it is found

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      For Columbine specifically, while the killers claimed they were doing it because of bullying, it turns out that was nearly entirely a bullshit justification. Even if it was, two wrongs don’t make a right.