How a 'Hero' Tennessee Gamer Stopped a Mass Shooting Allegedly Being Plotted in a California Town

A young gamer’s quick thinking in an online chatroom thwarted an apparent school shooting plot 2,000 miles away.

Two boys, 14 and 15, allegedly planned a school shooting at Evergreen Institute of Excellence in the Northern California town of Cottonwood, intending to kill up to 100 people, Tehama County Sheriff Dave Kain said at a Tuesday news conference. 

The two teens, who were not named due to their status as minors, allegedly intended to kill one of their parents before carrying out the attack. The co-conspirators allegedly wrote a manifesto, posed for photos wearing the same clothing as the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine mass shooting and divulged their scheme in an online game’s chat. 

“This was serious,” Kain said at the Tuesday conference. “It would have changed our community as a whole.”

A Tennessee boy read the alleged would-be shooters’ disturbing messages and took action. He called the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office on the evening of May 9, providing them with the suspect’s gamer tag and the contents of the chat.

Kain said that the boy’s sharp instincts could have saved lives.

“This young man had the courage and heroic instincts to call our agency and notify us in order to mitigate any possible threat to our citizens and, possibly, our young people,” the sheriff said. “Our investigators took that tip seriously since the beginning.”

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Kain said investigators sent the photos of the two teens posed as the Columbine shooters — sent along with chat logs by the teen — to school administrators, who quickly identified the two teens. 

Improvised explosive devices, which investigators believed were made for the prospective attack, and firearms were found in the teens’ homes when search warrants were executed, Kain said. 

The California duo had intended to carry out their attack on May 9, per the sheriff, but reversed course after one of them backed out of the plan. 

It is unclear what motivated the two boys — Kain said that one talked about being bullied when he was interviewed by investigators.

Both boys were charged with suspicion of making criminal threats, possession of a destructive device, manufacturing a destructive device and conspiracy to commit a felony, Kain said. Investigators are also working with prosecutors and looking at a potential additional charge of conspiracy to commit mass murder. 

The teens appeared in court on Thursday, where they were denied bail, the Tehama County District Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement.

Kain said that the threat was isolated to the two minors in custody, but that sheriff officials had spoken with administrators about instating additional security measures at the school. The sheriff said that as a sign of confidence, his son returned to classes at the same middle school on Monday. 

Although the department did not provide any details about the quick-thinking Tennessee boy, Kain said that his parents had been invited to Tehama County to be recognized.