4 California teens arrested in 'very detailed' high school shooting plot

Summerville High School.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/modestobee)

Four teenagers were arrested Friday after police uncovered a plot to shoot and kill students and teachers at a Tuolumne, California, high school, officials said.

See more

Tuolumne County Sheriff James Mele did not name the four male Summerville High School students, and they have not been charged. Mele said that students at the Northern California school heard the suspects talking about the shooting last week, and notified staff members, who then called the sheriff's office. "Detectives located evidence verifying a plot to shoot staff and students at Summerville High School," he said. "The suspects' plan was very detailed in nature and included names of would-be victims, locations, and the methods in which the plan was to be carried out."

Mele said that the suspects were in the process of securing weapons, NBC News reports, and "pretty doggone close" to being able to carry out the plot. "I have no idea why somebody or a group of individuals would want to do this," he said, before adding, "Cyber-bullying is a problem in our society. I think children today have a hard time trying to understand what is reality and what is fiction."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.