MySpace Massacre Averted

5 teenage boys were foiled in their attempt to duplicate a Columbine-style shooting on the anniversary of the attacks- by an alert Myspace woman.

From FoxNews Here:

Cops: Kansas School Shooting Foiled After MySpace Messages Intercepted
Thursday, April 20, 2006

RIVERTON, Kan. Five teenage boys accused of plotting a shooting rampage at their high school on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre were arrested Thursday after a message authorities said warned of a gun attack appeared on the Web site MySpace.com.

Sheriff’s deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one suspect, Sheriff Steve Norman said. Authorities also found documents about firearms and references to Armageddon in two suspects’ school lockers.

“What the resounding theme is: They were actually going to do this,” Norman said.

Deputies’ interviews with the suspects indicated they planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school’s camera system before starting the attack between noon and 1 p.m. Thursday, Norman said. The suspects apparently had been plotting since the beginning of the school year.

Officials at Riverton High School began investigating on Tuesday after learning that a threatening message had been posted on MySpace.com, he said.

“The message, it was brief, but it stated that there was going to be a shooting at the Riverton school and that people should wear bulletproof vests and flak jackets,” Norman said.

School officials identified the student who posted the message and talked to several of his friends, Norman said.

But Riverton school district Superintendent David Walters said the significance of the threat didn’t become clear until Wednesday night, after a woman in North Carolina who had chatted with one of the suspects on Myspace.com received more specific information that there would be about a dozen potential victims, at least one of whom was a staff member. She notified authorities in her state, who contacted the sheriff’s department, Norman said.

Norman said that the potential victims were popular students and that the suspects may have been bullied.

“I think there was probably some bullying, name calling, chastising,” he said. He also said investigators had learned the suspects were computer buffs who liked violent video games.

About 900 students in all grades go to school on the campus.

The North Carolina woman should receive some type of award for calling the cops. She averted a deadly attack. It will not be long before the details of the suspects comes out, and when they do, I will post the links to their myspace pages.