Teenager is in custody after trying to enter Wisconsin elementary school while armed, police say

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy who had been researching school shootings online was arrested hours after he tried to enter a Wisconsin elementary school carrying suspicious bags, police said.

Investigators believe the boy was armed, based on videos of him brandishing what investigators believe was a gun and comments he made to other students, said Patrick Patton, police chief in Kenosha, a city on Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Chicago.

“We narrowly missed a tragedy,” Patton said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

According to police, the teen tried to enter Roosevelt Elementary School around 9 a.m. Thursday with a backpack and a duffel bag. Employees became suspicious and wanted to question him, but he fled.

Kenosha Unified schools were placed on lockdown for the rest of the day as police searched for the boy. They finally arrested him that afternoon at his home.

The teen attends Mahone Middle School in Kenosha and was a former student at Roosevelt Elementary, police said, but they did not release his name. They said in a news release Friday that he is charged with making terroristic threats. Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said in an email to The Associated Press on Friday that the boy will be prosecuted in juvenile court, where the proceedings are confidential.

It was unclear Friday whether the boy was actually armed when he tried to enter the elementary school. Patton said investigators believe he had a firearm, but the chief did not say whether police recovered any weapons or ammunition from him.

A search of his home found several pellet guns that resembled real handguns and a pellet rifle that resembled a real rifle, police said in Friday’s news release. The boy’s mother told investigators he did not have access to real firearms.

The teen told investigators he went to the elementary school to sell candy, but later told a social worker he planned to scare the students, police said.

Investigators “also have information that the suspect has conducted multiple internet searches related to school shootings,” Patton said Thursday, adding that the teen had shared videos and made several comments to fellow students for weeks before Thursday.

“This is something that people have been told about his growth intentions,” Patton said. “We know there is an internet search going on, and all the red flags that we would look for and expect someone to report were there.”

Police have received at least one video of the student wielding a gun, according to investigators, Patton said. The chief played video at a news conference Thursday showing the student holding a firearm as he appears to practice entering rooms, Patton said. The chief did not specify when or where the video was shot, but it appears it was shot inside a home.

“The Kenosha Police Department had reason to believe the suspect had access to some type of firearm based on social media videos and other witness information,” the agency said in Friday’s news release. “The actions at the scene were extremely suspicious and the suspect’s internet activity suggested they had an extensive investigative history involving previous school shootings, information on how to conduct a school shooting and details of the targeted building.”

The student was taken into custody about six months later Police shot and killed an armed student outside a high school in Wisconsin after a report of someone with a gun. The shooting in Mount Horeb, outside Madison, in May sent children fleeing and led to an hours-long lockdown of local schools. Prosecutors announced this in August that the officers who shot the student would not face criminal charges.

Kenosha made national news in August 2020 a white police officer shot a black man during a domestic disturbance, which left him paralyzed. The shooting led to several nights of protests. A white Illinois teenager named Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people during the unrest, killing two of them. A jury ultimately acquitted Rittenhouse of any wrongdoing after he claimed he shot in self-defense.

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.