A teenager from Maryland got arrested because officials found out he planned to do a shooting at his school. Andrea Ye, also known as Alex, who is 18 and lives in Rockville, wrote a long paper explaining how he would do a big shooting at Thomas Wootton High School in Montgomery County. He got arrested on Wednesday.
The police found out about his plan by reading what he wrote and checking what he searched for on the internet. In his paper, Ye said he wanted to be famous and mentioned wanting to kill lots of people. He even said he wanted to be like those people who kill many times, because people often find them interesting.
Ye also talked about wanting to attack a school for younger kids because he thought it would be easier. He spent time talking to others online who thought school shootings were good things.
The police and the FBI worked together to stop Ye before he could do anything. This is important because it’s been 25 years since a big school shooting in Columbine. Even though it’s hard to stop these kinds of attacks, the police were able to prevent this one.
People first found out about Ye when someone who knew him saw the paper he wrote and told the police. They noticed that the main character in his story was a lot like Ye. When they looked at what Ye searched for on the internet, they saw he was looking for places to shoot guns and reading about other school shootings.