A Maryland high school student was arrested and charged with threat of mass violence after police say they discovered evidence revealing the teen had plans to commit a school shooting, authorities said Thursday.
The arrest on Wednesday came after authorities discovered a 129-page document they say was written by 18-year-old Alex Ye, the Montgomery County Department of Police said in a news release Thursday.
Authorities learned of the writings following an exchange Ye had via Instagram messaging with an unidentified person who felt a school shooting was “imminent,” according to the teenager’s arrest warrant. The unidentified person knew Ye from an inpatient treatment at a local psychiatric facility, the warrant says.
Ye referred to the writings as “his memoir,” which begins with a disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, the arrest warrant says.
Simple, he enjoys the idea of it.
" Ye was hospitalized in December 2022 for “threatening to ‘shoot up a school,’ homicidal, and suicidal ideations,” according to the arrest warrant. The student was then hospitalized for five months in 2023 at Johns Hopkins Pediatric Unit for “homicidal ideations.”
More recently, on March 15, FBI agents interviewed a school counselor who worked with the student from late 2022 to early 2023 and said Ye would “express violent thoughts such as shooting up the school, wanting to hurt other people, and would smile while saying it,” according to the arrest warrant. "