On Tuesday, February 13th, at 9:25AM, the grandmother of Joshua Alexander O’Connor, 18, called police in Everett, Washington, following the discovery of a rifle in a guitar case located in Joshua’s room. She also had discovered disturbing journal entries.
I’m preparing myself for the school shooting. I can’t wait. My aim has gotten much, much more accurate… I can’t wait to walk into that class and blow all those (expletives deleted) away.
I need to make this count. I’ve been reviewing many mass shootings/bombings (and attempted bombings) I’m learning from past shooters/bombers mistakes.
The journal is also reported to contain information regarding an armed robbery at a convenience store, which was carried out to help finance the attack. Police recovered a jacket matching the one worn by one of the robbers in Joshua’s bedroom — along with the rifle, and grenades (which were apparently inert).
The would-be assailant had reportedly tossed a coin to determine if his target would be his former school, Kamiak High in Marysville, or his current one, ACES Alternative School. ACES had apparently “won.”
In July, 2016, three former Kamiak High students were victims in an off-campus shooting, for which the assailant is now serving a life sentence. And in 2014, another local school, Marysville-Pilchuck High was the site of a shooting in which four students and the gunman lost their lives.
In a court appearance Wednesday, O’Connor informed the court he had purchased the specific model rifle that was found because it was the same as one of the weapons used by the Columbine shooters in 1999. His Public Defender argued that the rifle and inert grenades were legal to possess and that his journal writings were not enough to warrant the charge of Attempted Murder. But the judge disagreed, finding Probable Cause to hold O’Connor on three felony counts (also, felony assault on an officer during the arrest, and first-degree robbery of the convenience store). Bail was set at $5,000,000.
There was another person involved in the convenience store robbery and police are uncertain if they were aware of the planned school attack. It is unclear if police have identified the second suspect.
Our main thing right now is gratitude, especially to the grandmother.
Andy Muntz, Mukilteo School District
Unfortunately, there have been very few potential school shootings which have been stopped before they occurred. Our community has truly been blessed that we were not once again forced to accept more deaths as the price of corporate profits. It has only been in about the last year that Marysville-Pilchuck High School has begun to put the shootings of the past behind it. The cafeteria building, which was the site of the 2014 killings, had to be completely demolished and a new facility constructed elsewhere on campus at a cost of $8.1 million. What will have to be destroyed and rebuilt in Parkland has yet to be determined.