By Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles Instances

Officers are touting a younger Tennessee gamer as a hero after the boy thwarted a mass taking pictures allegedly being deliberate and mentioned on a gamer chat website by two youngsters in Tehama County, California.

“This was serious,” Kain mentioned. “It could have modified our neighborhood as an entire.

The 2 buddies allegedly wrote a manifesto for the lethal assault, took images of themselves in the identical garments and posed because the teenage killers within the 1999 Columbine mass taking pictures, and spoke in a web-based recreation’s chat concerning the deliberate taking pictures.

It was in that recreation’s chat {that a} Tennessee boy turned conscious of the doable assault, and determined to name the Tehama County Sheriff’s Workplace on the night of Might 9 concerning the disturbing chat.

Kain mentioned the gamer’s determination to name authorities concerning the doable assault might have saved lives.

“This young man had the courage and heroic instincts to call our agency and notify us in order to mitigate any possible threat to our citizens and, possibly, our young people,” Kain mentioned.

The gamer offered investigators with the suspect’s gamer tag, contents of the chat, in addition to a shared picture one of many suspects posted of them posing just like the Columbine faculty shooters.

Kain mentioned the shared picture helped investigators contact faculty directors, determine the 2 college students, and take each of them into custody.

“Our investigators took that tip seriously since the beginning,” Kain mentioned.

Investigators served search warrants on the houses of the 2 suspects, the place they discovered improvised explosive gadgets they imagine had been made to make use of within the faculty assault. Firearms had been additionally seized, Kain mentioned.

The 2 buddies had deliberate to go ahead with the assault on Might 9, however didn’t as a result of certainly one of them backed out, he mentioned. It’s unclear what the motivation for the varsity taking pictures was, however Kain mentioned one of many teen suspects talked about being bullied when interviewed by investigators.

The 2 suspects had been booked on suspicion of creating legal threats, possession of a damaging gadget, manufacturing a damaging gadget, and conspiracy to commit a felony, Kain mentioned. Investigators are additionally working with prosecutors and taking a look at the opportunity of a cost of conspiracy to commit mass homicide.

The 2 teenagers appeared in court docket Thursday, and had been ordered to stay in custody, per a request from the Tehama County District Legal professional’s Workplace, in response to a press release from the workplace.

Kain mentioned sheriff officers have spoken with faculty directors to offer further safety on the faculty, however mentioned the menace was remoted to the 2 suspects already in custody.

As an indication of confidence, the sheriff mentioned his son returned to lessons on the similar center faculty on Monday.

Kain declined to supply any particulars on the underage gamer who reported the menace, however mentioned he and his dad and mom had been informed they had been invited to go to Tehama County to be acknowledged.

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Initially Revealed: Might 15, 2025 at 7:04 PM EDT