HomeMy WebLinkAboutTeen charged with bringing homemade bomb to Utah school - Metro - 03/06/2018 - Metro - 03/06/20183/7/2018
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Teen charged with bringing homemade bomb to Utah school
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By: Staff The Associated Press, Published on Tue (Mair 06 2016
ST. GEORGE, Utah — A teenage student at a southern Utah high school has been charged with
bringing a homemade bomb to the school that was discovered in a backpack emitting smoke and
prompted an evacuation, police said Tuesday.
The boy was arrested Monday night after Pine View High School in the city of St. George was
evacuated for two hours that afternoon while the FBI and a bomb squad investigated. Police
declined to identify the arrested teen or give his age.
Authorities said additional charges also are pending against the teen as a suspect in the raising
of the Islamic State group's flag on a pole at another Utah high school last month just after the
Florida mass school shooting that was followed by numerous other threats to schools around the
U.S.
No one was hurt Monday after the backpack was found in a common area of the school by a
student who reported it to a teacher.
The boy was arrested and booked into a detention centre on charges of manufacture,
possession, sale, use or attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, St. George police said
in a statement.
No one was hurt, no damage was reported and the school reopened Tuesday morning for
classes. Police did not describe the homemade bomb in detail but said it "had the potential to
cause significant injury or death."
"Based on our investigation we can confirm this was a failed attempt to detonate a homemade
explosive at the school. It was also determined that the male had been researching information
and expressing interest in ISIS and promoting the organization," police said.
Police in the city of Hurricane about a half-hour drive from St. George said Tuesday the teen who
was arrested is also suspected of raising an Islamic State group flag in February at Hurricane
High School. That happened on Feb. 15, a day after a mass shooting at a school in Florida.
Authorities initially thought the graffiti and flag at the school were pranks.
The backpack at Pine View High School was found by a student who reported to a teacher that
smoke was coming out of it shortly after noon Monday, said St. George Police Capt. Giles said.
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3/7/2018
Teen charged with bringing homemade bomb to Utah school
The teen who was arrested was attending class at the school and items were seized from his
home "that were consistent with the material used to build the device placed at Pine View," St.
George police said.
Hurricane Police officer Ken Thompson confirmed "charges are pending on our incident here with
the flag."
"When the search warrant was executed, there was evidence taken from the house that tied him
to our case," he told The Associated Press Tuesday afternoon.
School District spokesman Steve Dunham said the school with about 1,100 students hadn't
experienced any similar incidents in recent years.
"I think it is a shock to all of us that something like this has happened in one of our schools," he
said.
In the case at Hurricane High School, the U.S. flag was found on the ground and slashed with a
flag with Arabic letters waving from the flagpole.
The FBI analyzed an image of the flag that had been raised and agents determined the group
was not involved, Thompson said earlier.
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