Landstown student charged with having concealed weapon

VIRGINIA BEACH

Police have charged a 16-year-old Landstown High School sophomore with possessing a concealed weapon after he took a razor blade to school Tuesday.

The boy will remain in his parents' custody, Officer Margie Long, a police spokeswoman, said today.

This is the second Landstown student to be charged this week in separate incidents. On Tuesday, police arrested and charged a 17-year-old senior with 10 counts of manufacturing and possessing an explosive device and one count of manufacturing an explosive device for use in a terrorist act . They found 28 pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and other devices in the student's home in the 2800 block of Saville Garden Way Monday.

Police said he may have been planning an attack against the school. According to Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant, the senior has shown a "fascination" with the Columbine High School shootings, in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher in Colorado on April 20, 1999.

The sophomore is a "known affiliate" of the senior, but police found no evidence of wrongdoing at his home when they searched it Wednesday.

When the bomb squad arrived at the single-family home in the 1100 block of Spindle Crossing, they didn't find weapons or explosives. They found lots of cats - about 60 or 70 live felines and 60 dead ones stowed in two freezers, said Long.

The student's mother, Lisa Ross, runs a cat rescue and is licensed to keep a large number of felines, said attorney Neil Bonney, a family spokesman.

Bonney said Ross' son was not involved in a suspected plot to bomb Landstown and disputed the number of cats in the house. About 30 live cats and six dead ones were inside, he said. The cats in the freezer died over the winter, and Ross was waiting for warmer weather to bury them, he said.

The situation with the sophomore student began around 2 p.m. Tuesday, when school officials reported smelling flammable liquid at the school, Long said. Fire officials responded and found a container with less than 2 ounces of flammable liquid in one of the school bathrooms.

From security tapes, officials identified a student who they suspect might have dumped the liquid. He was searched and a razor blade and a note containing "alarming, threatening" language was found, said Battalion Chief Tim Riley, a spokesman for the fire department.

Both students are juveniles, so neither has been identified.

Meanwhile, the Ross family planned to file a claim seeking reimbursement for damage it says police caused in the home, Bonney said. Investigators seized two computers and other electronic equipment from the house and left rooms in disarray, he said.

Outside the home Wednesday, Bonney showed reporters a crate filled with manila folders, each bearing a cat's name, such as "Munchkin" and "Rafa." Inside each were pages of health records and veterinary bills that Ross keeps to document the cats' care.

"She takes this very seriously," Bonney said. "This is not like some crazy person with a bunch of cats running around."