Police find weapons cache at teen's home

[Catty1]

What were these parents DOING?????? :eek:
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/student_arsenal

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 42 minutes ago

PHILADELPHIA - A home-schooled teenager who felt bullied amassed a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices and tried to recruit another boy for a possible school attack, authorities said Thursday


The 14-year-old was taken into custody after police searched his bedroom in a Philadelphia suburb Wednesday evening. He had talked about mounting a Columbine-type attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, authorities said.

The weapons included a 9 mm assault rifle that the teenager's mother had recently bought for him, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said. Prosecutors are reviewing her actions.

Police also found about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks, Castor said. The weapons were plainly visible in the boy's bedroom, Castor said.

Also discovered were seven explosive devices Castor described as homemade grenades: plastic containers filled with BBs to which gunpowder could be added. Authorities said one grenade was operable and the others had been in the process of being assembled.

The search did not turn up any ammunition for the most dangerous firearm in the bunch, the assault rifle.

"I do not think an attack was imminent and I am not certain that an attack was going to occur at all," Castor said at a news conference. "It could have simply been big talking by a kid who thought that he was bullied previously and he was going to exact his revenge."

The teen previously attended middle school in the district but had been taught at home for more than a year after voluntarily leaving school, Castor said.

Plymouth Township police searched the home after getting a tip Wednesday from a high school student and his father.

The teen was charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts and was being held at a youth facility. He was due in court for an initial appearance Friday morning.

A call to the county Public Defender's Office, which was representing the youth, rang unanswered after business hours.

Castor declined to name the suspect's parents and said he did not think they had retained lawyers.

"They are now under investigation by us, concerning whether there's any complicity in putting the weapon in this boy's hands," Castor said.

The arrest came the same day a 14-year-old in Ohio opened fire at his Cleveland high school, wounding four before killing himself.

Classes were held as usual Thursday at the Pennsylvania high school.

[critter crazy]

Why would the mother buy these things for her kid?? And we wonder what is wrong with the world these days!!:rolleyes:

[jennielynn1970]

I can't believe they're down playing it about nothing being imminent just because they didn't find any ammunition in the house. He had the guns... many of them... I'm sure he could get ammunition if he wanted or needed it at any time.

I hope the parents are also charged in this. It is sick that a mother or father would buy weapons for their kids knowing full well that they have issues. I doubt he was going deer hunting in Philly.

[Catty1]

The parents are under investigation for sure!

Sometimes I think mandatory spay/neuter ought to be extended to certain humans....

[RICHARD]

Even tho you can do some damage with a pellet or BB gun, only one gun (which did not have ammo) was really a bang bang gun.

The stupid media made it sound like the kid had an armory in his room.

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The kid had more of a chance to do a RALPHIE to himself.....

"A BB gun? You'll put your eye out with that kid!" :eek:

[jennielynn1970]

I didn't think the media was stupid about it. It was a kid who had issues, had been picked on and bullied, and he was being homeschooled because he couldn't make it in a regular school setting. I saw the reports with the pics of the weapons... it was an armory in terms of numbers. One gun was more than enough to do damage with.

With all the school violence and Columbine style shootings lately, I'm glad there is a zero tolerance policy going on in most schools and areas.

I'm glad that they are charging his mother as well. Enabling your children to do harm, or knowing they have the intent to do harm and do nothing to stop it, is just sick.

[RICHARD]

The bulk of the 'guns' were air and pellet guns!

My problem is with the fact that the media makes it sound like he had nukes under his pillow!

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Yes, Charge him and the mother but don't make it sound like he had real guns in his room.
This little effer is sick and his thoughts were definitely moving towards mayhem....

I have been shot and shot myself with a pellet/bb gun...

There is no way that a kid could do a Columbine with a bunch of toys. :eek:

[Miss Z]

I didn't think the media was stupid about it. It was a kid who had issues, had been picked on and bullied, and he was being homeschooled because he couldn't make it in a regular school setting. I saw the reports with the pics of the weapons... it was an armory in terms of numbers. One gun was more than enough to do damage with.



Agreed.

'Serious' weapons or not, weapons are weapons. They are designed to do damage. Perhaps he was deluded about causing another Columbine, but I bet he could have had a real good go.

His intentions were in place to harm people regardless of what he was going to use to do so. That's scary enough for me.

I applaud the media for once on this story, for shaming a disturbed individual and his what-were-they-thinking-buying-him-a-gun parents, and for displaying the message of 'you will be caught and punished' to those who have thought about trying the same thing.

[RICHARD]

Agreed.

'Serious' weapons or not, weapons are weapons. They are designed to do damage.

Having shot a bunch of weapons I disagree..

My only peeve is that the media made it sound like the kid had an arsenal that would defeat an army.

A 30 pellet or BB guns isn't an arsenal.
A pellet or BB gun that looks like a modern firearm is trouble.
There are replica 'guns' that will get you killed if you present them to a law officer-too bad, you idiot!

This kid is a product of bad parenting, bad choices and stupidity.

I am glad that they busted him and his mom, But have a problem with the media presenting his gun stash as fricking WW III.

That's like saying they kid had a nuke, when in fact it was a radium wrist watch. :D

[jennielynn1970]

Police: Mother Bought Guns for Pennsylvania Boy Charged With School Plot

Friday , October 12, 2007

AP
ADVERTISEMENT

NORRISTOWN, Pa. —
A troubled teenager accused of plotting a school attack built up a stash of weapons with the help of his mother, authorities said.

Michele Cossey, 46, was arrested Friday on charges of illegally buying her home-schooled son, Dillon, a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle with a laser scope.

The parents were indulging the boy's interests because he was unhappy, not knowingly aiding a school assault, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said Friday. The parents didn't know of the teen's plans, but "by virtue of her indulgence, she enabled him to get in this position," Castor said.

Authorities have said they do not believe an attack was imminent and are not even certain one would have occurred.

"This was a smart kid that clearly believes he was picked on and was a victim," Castor said. "He had psychological issues and began to act out on those feelings."

Dillon Cossey, who was arrested Wednesday, felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, authorities said. The teen previously attended middle school in the district, but had been taught at home for more than a year after voluntarily leaving school.

Acting on a tip from high school student, Lewis Bennett III and his father, police searched the boy's bedroom and found the 9 mm rifle, about 30 air-powered guns modeled to look like higher-powered weapons, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks, Castor said.

The mother bought the semiautomatic rifle at a gun show on Sept. 23 and provided police with a receipt, investigators said in court papers. The teenager said the two .22-caliber weapons were stored at a friend's house.

She was charged with unlawful transfer of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment, and later released on bail. She did not comment at the hearing.

Her attorney, Tim Woodward, said, "I'm sure she loves her kid."

The teen, who also had a brief court appearance Friday, was ordered held at a juvenile facility while he receives psychiatric evaluation. He was charged with solicitation to commit terror and other counts, but his lawyer, J. David Farrell, stressed that all but one of the weapons prosecutors put on display were pellet guns and air rifles.

At a press conference in their Conshohocken, Pa. home, the parents of the teen who tipped police off about the possible school attack, praised their son.

"We are really proud of our son, his maturity, and the way he is handling the media," said Lewis Bennett, Jr., the boy's father. "Wednesday my son learned of new information and that added to the information he had. That is what seemed to make it a more serious event. That is why we went to the police department."

While Dillon Cossey had been to their house, the teen's mother was concerned about him.

"(His) preoccupation with guns, when he would call the house and my son wasn't available, he would call persistently," said Lewis Bennett III's mother. "Things that make a red flag, but not sure of what is going on. He was always polite. A soft spoken child child."

It is legal for children to possess air guns in Pennsylvania. Farrell also noted it is legal for a minor to fire weapons under adult supervision and said he didn't believe the students at Plymouth Whitemarsh were in any danger.

"They're showing 30 guns on a desk that appear to be handguns and saying this was a Columbine in the making," Farrell said. "That's simply not borne out by the facts."

Dillon Cossey told investigators he was planning an attack on the school, Castor said, but authorities do not believe he was close to pulling it off. Castor said he believes the teen Cossey asked to help him was the first person he approached for assistance.

On his MySpace page, Dillon Cossey made frequent references to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and describes their 1999 massacre at Columbine High School as one of his interests. The page, headlined "Mess with the best, Die like the rest," features tribute videos to the Columbine shooters and includes a still from surveillance video of the attack.

Police, who searched the boy's home with his parents' permission, also discovered seven explosive devices Castor has described as homemade grenades: plastic containers filled with BBs to which gunpowder could be added. Authorities said one was operable and the others had been in the process of being assembled.

The search did not turn up any ammunition for the semiautomatic rifle.

Castor said he suspects Cossey "was a target for bullies because he was overweight and not fully developed socially," but that mental problems might have exaggerated the effect of the bullying.

"I have read things that he wrote. ... He has severe mental disturbances," Castor said.

Authorities said Friday that the boy's father also tried to buy his son a rifle in December 2005, but was not allowed to because he was a felon.

Frank Cossey was sentenced to house arrest for lying about his criminal record when he went to buy a .22-caliber rifle, police said Friday. On his application he said he had never been convicted of a felony, but he had pleaded guilty in 1981 to manslaughter in a drunken driving death in Oklahoma and sent to prison, police said.

The boy's arrest came the same day a 14-year-old in Ohio opened fire at his Cleveland high school, wounding four before killing himself.

The high school student who tipped off police with his father told the Philadelphia Daily News he was "sick of hearing about all these school shootings."

"I didn't want another kid to do the same thing and keep this chain of events going on," Lewis Bennett said.

Michele Cossey faces a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison on the gun-transfer charge alone, but the prosecutor expects she would get a lighter sentence.

[RICHARD]

And then?


How sophisticated can a 14 year old boy be??

The only thing you'll get from shooting someone with a bb/pellet gun is an arse whupping or dead from having that individual take the gun away and performing a ballistic craniotomy with the stock. (READ: Getting your noggin split open with the used end of the aforementioned weapon)

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The search did not turn up any ammunition for the semiautomatic rifle.


That reminds me of the joke....

Two soldiers were sitting in a foxhole during WWII. After a vicious firefight they saw that they had no more ammo.

The first soldier began to panic when the second suggested they pretend they had guns! "Make like you have a pistol in your hand! Point your index finger and say BANG! That should keep the enemy away!'

During the next charge by the opposing army, the first soldier stood up, pointed his finger at the advancing enemy and yelled, "BANGITY, BANG, BANG!"

ONE soldier grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. The first soldier looked at his fellow comrade and said, "Wow, it really works!"

Between the both of them they stopped the attack.


Later on they spied a lone man walking up to the area where their foxhole was located. Full of themselves they began to point and yell, "BANGITY, BANG, BANG!"

Nothing happened to the soldier they wanted to halt!

Again, "BANGITY, BANG, BANG!"

Nothing!

They kept it up until the lone soldier walked up to the foxhole, pulled out a pistol and wounded both men.

As the soldier walked by they heard him say.


TANKITY TANK, Tankity tank.

[Catty1]

...stressed that all but one of the weapons prosecutors put on display were pellet guns and air rifles.


Authorities said Friday that the boy's father also tried to buy his son a rifle in December 2005, but was not allowed to because he was a felon.

Oh - so the "one" weapon would have done no damage, Richard?

That second quote raises a red flag with me...what was the kid learning?

And did you choose to ignore what the police actually FOUND on their raids as opposed to what was displayed in the courtroom?

- the kid had social and psych problems...all this is a pretty good formula.

As for 14-year-olds...please read the following. Yep. In Alberta. Canada. A home student...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/1999/05/03/taber_new990503.html

Canada grieves along with Taber
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 12:12 PM ET
CBC News
Friends, family, and political leaders gathered in Taber for a moving tribute to 17-year-old Jason Lang killed last week in a shooting at his high school.

* RELATED STORIES: Too Close to Home: The Tragedy in Taber

Last Wednesday a 14-year-old "at home" student entered W.H. Myers high school with a .22 calibre rifle, shooting two students, killing Jason and wounding another 17-year-old.

The memorial service for Jason was held in the packed auditorium of the school gymnasium.

[RICHARD]

Oh - so the "one" weapon would have done no damage, Richard?




I was talking about the evil assault weapon, the one with no BANGITY BANG BANG. :confused:


Guns don't kill people, bullets do.


Thanks for pointing out the fact that these little AHs that are the worst are home schooled.

I'd probably want to go on a shooting spree if my parents were teaching me in the house. My dad was an excellent rifle and pistol shot. We still have his trophies - that would have made me extra lethal.

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Which brings me to...


An idle mind is the devil's workshop-
Wanna see what I built?

[DrKym]

I now have 3 boys....none of which are allowed to use weaponry without an adult present, I would no more allow my kids to have an armory than I would allow them to choose their diet for themselves. They are KIDS and this mother needs to be re-educated on what it means to be in charge of a child. They are a gift and a responsibility.

And RICHARD I dont care if it was pellet or BB guns the fact is the child should NOT have had access without a responsible adult. PERIOD

[RICHARD]

And RICHARD I dont care if it was pellet or BB guns the fact is the child should NOT have had access without a responsible adult. PERIOD


Thanks, no wonder I shot myself in the toe.... :eek: