Beach teen charged with making explosives in plot on school

VIRGINIA BEACH

A 17-year-old Landstown High School senior has been charged with manufacturing explosives and plotting to bomb the 2,000-student school.

On Sunday, one of the suspect's friends told authorities of a plan to bomb the school, officials said, and investigators said they found 28 pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and other devices, as well as materials for making additional bombs in the suspect's home the next day.

These were enough to cause personal injuries but not major structural damage to a building, said Battalion Chief Tim Riley, a spokesman for the fire department.

The student, whose name is not being released because he is a juvenile, has shown a "fascination" with the Columbine High School shooting, in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher in Littleton, Colo., on April 20, 1999, Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant said.

Two years ago, around the anniversary of the Columbine attack, the teen was convicted of possessing a hoax explosive device and served three months on supervised probation, Bryant said.

The teen, who lives in the 2800 block of Saville Garden Way, is charged with 10 counts of manufacturing and possessing an explosive device and one count of manufacturing an explosive device for use in a terrorist act, Riley said. He was being held in the Virginia Beach Juvenile Detention Center without bond.

"At least one, maybe two" more people could face charges, Bryant said.

At Landstown, officials swept the building with bomb-sniffing dogs and searched the student's locker, Riley said. Nothing dangerous was found.

Several parents waiting to pick up their children after school Tuesday said no one had contacted them. They said they either hadn't heard about the incident or had learned about it from the news.

The school planned to notify parents via the AlertNow system, which sends phone and e-mail messages, Tuesday evening, said Nancy Soscia, a spokeswoman for the school system.

A letter on the Landstown High Web site assured parents that no explosives were found on school grounds. It asked them to keep an eye on their children and encourage them to report "all potential wrongdoings."

School officials have recommended that the student be expelled for threatening physical harm to students, staff or school facilities, Soscia said.

Parents said they were relieved the student was caught and felt the school was safe.

"It happens everywhere," said Christy Hugeback, a mother of two students at the school. "It's part of what our society has become, sadly."

Her daughter, Jenna, a 15-year-old sophomore, said her teachers talked about the incident in every class.

"I was shocked. You don't think it will happen in your school," she said. "I was relieved that they got him."

Students and neighbors described the suspect as a quiet, "outcast" who had long hair and often wore a black trench coat.

"We've been having problems with him for a long time," said 61-year-old Daniel Wood, who's lived in the neighborhood for 17 years. He said the teen had been seen carrying a long, swordlike knife and had shot birds with a BB gun.

Calls to the teen's home were not returned Tuesday.

"Every time we hear something about this kid, it gets worse," Wood said.

However, the student was not as much of an outcast as some say, said Edward Bringas Vega, 18, who graduated from Landstown last year and attended summer school with the suspect.

"He wasn't that quiet," Vega said. "He tried to get to know people."

Vega said he was shocked to hear police said they found explosives because his home shares a wall with the teen's.

"I never knew he was like that," he said.

During a hearing Tuesday, public defender Daniel Goode asked a judge to order an evaluation to determine whether his client is competent to stand trial.

The teen has a history of emotional and mental health-related issues, prosecutor Bryant said, adding he will decide whether to charge the student as an adult after a competency evaluation.

A trial was set for April 28 in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations court.

"The positive side is that nothing bad actually did occur," Riley said. "It was averted before any threat was acted upon."

Pilot writers Cindy Clayton, Lauren King and Lauren Roth contributed to this report.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com