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Subscribe to RSSSEATTLE -- Two fifth-grade boys are in custody in Washington state after they brought a knife and gun to school with the goal of killing a schoolmate in a foiled murder plot that shocked their rural town because of their youth, prosecutors said on Friday.
The boys, accused of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder despite their tender ages of 10 and 11, also planned to harm other students by luring them away one at a time, said Tim Rasmussen, a Stevens County prosecuting attorney.
The boys are due in court next week, where a judge will determine if they had the mental capacity to carry out the attack and if they can be prosecuted in juvenile court, which in Washington is typically reserved for older defendants between ages 12 and 18.
Prosecutors said the boys had boarded a school bus on their way to an elementary school in Colville, a city of 4,600 residents in the far northeast part of the state, with the 11-year-old in possession of a knife and the 10-year-old with a functional Remington Model 1911 semi-automatic handgun.
But a fourth-grade student riding the bus saw the knife and reported it to a teacher's aide, prosecutors said. School officials found the weapons before anyone was hurt, and the two boys were arrested. They are in a juvenile detention facility.
The boys sought to lure the girl away from school, where the older boy planned to stab her, prosecutors said.
"I was going to kill her with the knife and (the younger boy) was supposed to use the gun to keep anyone from trying to stop me or mess up our plan," the older boy told police, according to the declaration of probable cause filed in court.
They intended to kill the girl because "she's rude and always made fun of me and my friends," the younger boy told investigators, according to the documents.
Attorneys for the boys declined to comment.
One of the boys had taken the gun, which originally belonged to his grandfather, from an older brother's room, according to a declaration of probable cause.
The boys also bribed another student with $80 to dissuade him from revealing what he knew about the plot, Rasmussen said.
In addition to the murder conspiracy, the 10-year-old boy faces charges of being in possession of a firearm and tampering with a witness.
The 11-year-old faces charges of murder conspiracy, juvenile firearm possession conspiracy and tampering with a witness.
If they are convicted of all the charges they could be sentenced to over three years in a juvenile treatment facility.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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SMH at most of these comments. These two young boys are deeply troubled and clearly have very poor coping skills. The young lady in question has no relevance to the decision these boys made. With these weapons, they could have harmed anyone who angered them that day. The young man who stepped forward to out these two young boys is to be commended.
The fact that some folks on this board are willing to give these two youngsters any wiggle room for their actions is stunning.
As a child of the '60s and '70s... our parents insisted we were "expressing ourselves" when we acted out..... that's a clinical term by the way.. acting out..... makes it sound so much better than.........misbehaving....and we were told it's OK... she/he deserved it..... or worse........ they brought it on themselves...............yeah, he really deserved that concussion for calling me "weird."
Now we have taken it a step further.......... movies and tv say it's OK to kill them if you have a "reason" to do it..... it's glamorous....it's the "right thing" to do... after all... Stallone did it in his last few movies... they were bad men that deserved it.................who needs judges and juries..????
Don't know where you lived but my parents did not call it "expressing ourselves". I was brought up to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. I ignored people who attempted to bully me and I stood up for others that were bullied and couldn't stand up for themselves without ever having to throw a single punch. If I did something wrong, I was punished not told that I was only "expressing myself". I was taught that there were consequences for your actions and if I didn't want to suffer those consequences I made sure that I didn't commit the actions.
Kids like that need to be euthanized. They were ready to kill someone for being rude.
But they were only "expressing" themselves... living what they learned.... you know... Stallone and Willis... CSI and Criminal Minds..... it's just a little blood... right????? And let's not forget the "best" video games where the "bad" guy is blown up.. blasted and blown up....... or the zombies... blown them up or they will get you.....
Lisa: So you called boys you liked names and were mean to them and you weren't a bully? It was only when your daughter was *bullied* that she became the product of a REAL bully and you taught her violence to settle the matter? Being a bully is being mean to someone else and that includes name calling. You were a bully and you taught your daughter to be one too by settling matters with violence. It's called retaliation and continues into adulthood.
There's only one explanation.. Marilyn Manson.
The means proposed for gun control, will accomplish NOTHING.
Don't trash me before you hear me out.
There is no law you could of implemented to prevent this or Sandy Hook.
Pissing in the wind....
Get to the "root cause" and address that issue, not law-biding citizens...
Wow, more is coming out about this story and it is not pretty.
Too bad the parents spared the rod and spoiled the little brats...my other term for them is not "PC".
This is my town. I live & work there (Colville).
The girl is/was a bully. School adults should have intervened long before it got to this.
More will come out in this regard.
I don't pretend that excuses the boys' actions.
You live in Colville huh? A town of 4600 people and you know the little girl these morons wanted to kill? You know for a fact that she was a bully? You are so full of it I can smell it from here. If this girl was the bully, don't you think that these two boys wouldn't have beat her up or done something less violent before grabbing a knife and gun? I have lived in a town of 600 and didn't know the personal lives of anybody in the town. You must be one heck of a busybody, but I personally think that you're full of it.....
You called it MeWayne here is another comment from this troll...Kalispell is in Montana
Geez I guess in this one he is Canadian! Pretty sad life he must have since he keeps making up other ones...
If that's daddy's gun, he needs to serve some time.
What has happened in this country?
Ina way it isn't surprising with almost all out entertainment being graphically violent with a right-wing mob of fanatics promoting the violence as one of their main virtues.
Animals.
We demonize legal gun owners... call them "fanatics" and give Hollywood a free pass while the "Celebs" who have armed bodyguards... and live in gated communities make movies full of killing, maiming and violence... decry the "violence" in our society.............Remember Rosie O'Donnell????? She decries gun ownership and guns... while she has an armed bodyguard around her AND HER DAUGHTER....... but the rest of us cling to our guns and bibles.....................and let's not forget the video game industry... defending their games that include blowing up, killing and in some.... RAPE..... as art....
Yep... that's the way things are.............
Not to blame the (potential) victim but parents should teach their kids to play nice so they aren't a target of violence from other people's mentally or emotionally unstable kids. You just don't know who will snap on you when you push them over the edge. Just like you have to be careful not to piss off other drivers, never know who will be the next road rage driver killer.
When I was in 5th grade, all girls were annoying but I didnt want to kill them. Where do they get these ideas? Movies, TV, vidieo games? What was this kid doing with a gun?
In a previous post on another vine I commented that parents should step up and be parents. Lock those guns up!
For crying out loud, what is wrong with these parents?
When I was in 5th grade..... 30 years ago... I think it was illegal to kill someone... and bring a gun to class.... and to kick the crap out of someone.... at least that's what the cops said when I decked the bully who called me a f#g.........
Annie up there, are you nuts? Guns and knives don't kill people? I hope you go and tell that to anyone who's been a victim of gun and knife violence. How about going to SandyHook and ask those poor kids? Oh wait, you can't because they were killed by GUNS. Guns and knives don't kill people on their own. And since these two boys are definitely juveniles, they had to learn this somewhere. At home, or from tv, or somewhere. I have little cousins who say there's no such thing as a bad child, only a badly raised one, so I have an idea. Of course these children need to be punished, but how about we dig into the real reasons for this, and then also charge the parents.....if a minor commits a crime, then the parents also need to pay for it. Would definitely change the way a lot of parents raise their kids that's for sure!
So those guns just jumped up and blasted away?
The mental case holding them had NOTHING to do with it?
When budget cuts are under way.... mental health... meals on wheels.... senior programs... all get cut... we spend more on researching if the Teabaggers are involved with Big Tobacco than we do on mental health in this country...... and now we want to regulate and drive them away from the little bit of care they have available????? We deserve the big fat flame out we get from this disaster........
Maybe guns don't kill people, but guns are designed to kill people.
There are a lot of issues here with parenting, moral values and all, but it seems to me a basic requirement should be to secure firearms from unsupervised access by juveniles or others who may not possess sound judgment. As a life-long shooter - and even NRA member - I endorse laws that hold gun owners responsible for securing their weapons. I have always done so and taught my children the same. As a family we enjoy the shooting sports, but have tremendous respect for the power of firearms, the need to safeguard them, and their danger in the wrong hands.
Those kids were just doing what they hear from adults and NRA president LaPierre!
They are not depending on the nanny state to solve their problems with a bully but using their second amendment rights to deal with a tyrant.
Oh... don't forget their video games, prime time TV and the movies.....
The trailer for Stallones newest had the phrase "you can't just kill someone....I just did" in it........ and you don't think little Bobby didn't hear that?????????
Put your head a little deeper in the sand..............and when the guns are restricted and you start crying because the thug robbed you.... live with it.. you got what you wanted....
So.... we don't have a Mental Health Issue in this country???? It's all the gun's fault????
We tell these kids it's OK to kill, blast, blow up and maim in the movies, theaters, on tv and in the video games......and then wonder why they do this??????
Insanity rules in this country.......
The insanity Paul is children growing up in homes where domestic violence, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse and neglect is the *norm.*
In many states the children are too young to be charged with a crime. In MN you must be 13 before you can be charged with a crime.
Honor, courage, integrity, trustworthiness, respect, humility and love are all noble values. Values such as these will reduce violence. These values can not be legislated. No law will change the hearts of humans.
As parents, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, etc we can all be examples of these values and teach others the importance of these values. The ills of a community are the responsibility of each and every member of that community.
This is a solution that will reduce murders and other crimes. It has been proven effective century after century in countless places.
From this article no can draw any concrete conclusions as to if the girl was a bully or not, maybe obnoxious, but one things is true whether it is Columbine or other student on student related violence.It is that one person always feel that someone is bullying or singling them out for ridicule. We should address how our children treat each other in a school setting. I sincerely believe it we taught our children a little empathy and compassion for othesr we would not have these tragedies occur over and over again.
The boys said that she was "always rude and made fun of me and my friends" At age 10, that's being a bully.
Facing a maximum of three years? that makes me feel safer. Why not give them a slap on the wrist, therapy, and some weapons training; that will cure their urge to commit mass homicide. Being taunted by one "rude" girl who "made fun of them" is about as mild as bullying gets unless you are a much younger girl.
3 years? That is hardly a harsh sentence. This kid should be locked up for a long time.
And stop playing the gun spin. This kid stole a gun.
Way too much TV, way too many rated R movies, and a gang of f'd up video games! hmmm, could it be the PARENTS
It's interesting that these kids say they were retaliating against a girl who was mean to them and their friends - perhaps the school, as a whole, should have an assembly discussing the repercussions of "teasing and calling names" and how hurtful it can be. It should be a wake up call to all the bullies in every school..they never know what is going to happen when they are mean to their classmates anymore.
And, those boys need to have some kind mental assistance to help them learn how to deal with other people's inappropriate behavior.
It's bad enough kids can dream up this kinda stuff BUT then try to pull it off is is chilling. Glad they didn't have the composure to pull it off this time. I dunno about the track record of these boys and I dunno about this girl being a bully... too little info and way too much amplifying of the meager facts is required to come to any conclussions. At least based on the story as reported here... has anyone blamed Obama yet ?
Thank goodness the fourth grader had enough sense to tell the teacher's aide.Both boys need to be under phychiatric care & when they are done their treatment facility they should not be allowed to enter public school again.Let their parents home school them.It's so sad!!! maybe more people should Teach their children about the ten commandments, even if you are not religious it gives them an idea what's right & wrong, And it teaches the children how one should behave in society it's not a cure all" but a foundation to rational thinking..