A 15-year-old girl in Utah has been arrested for allegedly making explosives and planning a mass shooting at her high school.
The Weber High School student was charged September 30 in 2nd District Juvenile Court in Ogden, Utah, with use of a weapon of mass destruction and a first-degree felony, according to court documents obtained by KSL.com.
The investigation began on September 23 when Weber County sheriff's deputies received a report of messages from an Instagram account 'containing terroristic threats including the act of committing a mass school shooting,' according to several search warrant affidavits.
The FBI had obtained the messages and contacted the local sheriff's office after discovering that the account allegedly belonged to a person in Weber County.
The tip likely came from another student which is the 'number one way' authorities are alerted to shooter plots, according to experts.
The messages 'referenced acquiring firearms, and described the act that she was about to perform 'Like Columbine,' referring to the infamous terrorist event which occurred at Columbine High School,' the warrant says.
The messages claimed the girl, who has not been named due to her age, intended to shoot multiple people and that she was planning a mass casualty incident in April 2024.
Weber School District officials said they were made aware that a student was potentially planning to carry out an attack at Weber High School after contact with local authorities
Police raided the teenage girl's home and she confessed to sending the messages to people she met online. Investigators then seized the girl's phone as evidence.
'On the device I saw a Google search containing photos of surveillance footage of a school shooter,' the investigating deputy wrote in the affidavit.
Investigators also found text messages in which the unidentified girl talked about her plans to '''shoot up"
