News

'Courageous’ Mom Realizes Her Son Was Planning a School Shooting & Turns Him In Just In Time

NewsPublished Oct 8, 2019
By Kaitlin Stanford
Nicole, mom of boy who wrote about school shootingCBS News/YouTube

When we hear about school shootings, all too often we hear that there were warning signs. The shooter had told friends about plans to kill classmates or expressed a dark need to harm others. Maybe the person joined online forums that talked about death and destruction or wrote about it in a journal. Either way, there are typically signs or cries for help before the violence happens, and yet little is done to stop it. After the damage has been done, friends and loved ones hang their heads, shocked that it happened, but wishing so badly they could turn back time and do something. This week, at least one mother in Washington state has no such regrets. Identified only as Nicole, the mother is speaking out after turning in her 17-year-old son to police, once she learned of his plans to commit a school shooting.

The mom, who lives in College Place, Washington, recently came across her son's journal, in which he detailed an attack he planned for April 20, 2020.

The date is significant for a disturbing reason: It's the 21st anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, in which 12 students and one teacher were killed when two teen shooters opened fire during school hours.

As the mother read her son's chilling journal entries, she began to realize she couldn't stay silent.

"I know a lot of people that go to College Place High School," the mother told CBS News. "Their lives would have been forever changed."

The boy's journal allegedly described how he planned to detonate pipe bombs and use multiple firearms to "blast anyone in sight" and "execute survivors," resulting in mass chaos and a devastating loss of life.

In the end, Nicole made the gut-wrenching decision to call police and turn in her son.

"It's devastating," she said, but clarified that she had no regrets. "I know I did all I can do and that I made the right choice."

Still, coming to the realization that the son she so lovingly raised could have this level of hate in his heart has been devastating. In fact, she said it's left her feeling "like I've done something wrong."

Before turning in her son, the mother confronted him in an emotional conversation.

The teen, who battles depression, insisted it had all been a creative writing exercise and tried to dismiss it as "just a story" -- but his mother knew better.

So did police.

"Well, he's plotting to attack and kill people," College Place Police Chief Troy Tomaras told CBS News. "That's beyond creative writing. That's beyond normal."

Ultimately, Tomaras says, deciding to pick up the phone and call police was a brave decision that likely saved lives.

"She's very courageous," he said. "It's clearly very emotional for her. She loves her son."

Nicole is further tormented by the fact that her son is sitting in jail right now, not getting the proper mental health treatment he needs.

"I'm worried about his mental health and he needs help," Nicole said. But sadly, she also knows that if he wasn't behind bars right now, he could be of great harm to himself and others. "Truth hurts sometimes," she added.

"It takes a lot to do what I did," the mother said, before reiterating that she loves her son. "It wasn't easy."

Since Columbine, more than 230 school shootings have happened in the United States.

Luckily, not all planned attacks have been carried out, thanks to the intervention of police. But in many cases, they would never have been alerted had it not been for caring friends or family just like Nicole. Or in some cases, people who just have a sense that something isn't quite right. 

In October 2018, New Jersey mom Koeberle Bull unwittingly prevented a school shooting shortly after receiving a disturbing message from a stranger on Facebook named Dylan Jarrell.

"I hope your black children gets hung for you being so stupid," Jarrell's message read, which sent chills up the mother's spine.

Bull, a widow and mother of three, later said that something in her "told me not to let this go," and she immediately called police. It turned out her timing couldn't have been better: Police in Kentucky stopped Jarrell in his driveway -- where he had a gun, more than 200 rounds of ammunition, a 100-round high-capacity magazine, a Kevlar vest, and a detailed plan of attack on two school districts in his car.

Earlier last year, a mother in Richmond, Indiana, also prevented a school shooting, after alerting police of her 14-year-old son's plans to attack a middle school. When police showed up and confronted the teen, he "reportedly shot out the glass of a locked entry door" before running back inside the building, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The mother was later praised for her actions, because it's believed that more lives would have been lost had police not been called as quickly as they were.

In fact, just days later, members of the community came out to host a vigil for the mother.

"She’s a human. She’s a mother. She lost her child," vigil organizer Shawn Wright told WTHR. "We wanted to bring her to let her know that she is supported too because at the end of the day she did a lot. She saved a lot of lives."

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