Authorities seize 23 guns from home of teen suspected of having 'school shooter ideations' Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY September 10, 2025 at 5:26 AM 0 A 13yearold boy who authorities described as having "school shooter ideations" has been arrested after local deputies said they discovered a large number ...
- - Authorities seize 23 guns from home of teen suspected of having 'school shooter ideations'
Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY September 10, 2025 at 5:26 AM
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A 13-year-old boy who authorities described as having "school shooter ideations" has been arrested after local deputies said they discovered a large number of firearms and "mass shooting scenario" writings at his home in Washington state.
Deputies were notified late afternoon on Sept. 5 about the boy, who allegedly made "threats to kill" and stated that he had access to firearms, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. At around 1 a.m. local time on Sept. 6, the sheriff's office said deputies and a SWAT team raided his home in Pierce County, just south of Seattle.
During the search, the sheriff's office said authorities found and seized a "large quantity of firearms" that were both secured and unsecured; loaded magazines with "school shooter writings" on them; and other writings and clothing that supported a "typical mass shooting scenario."
The boy was taken into custody and booked into Remann Hall, a juvenile detention center in Tacoma, according to the sheriff's office. The boy was not currently enrolled in school, but was last enrolled in the Franklin Public School District in 2021, the sheriff's office said.
In an update on Sept. 8, the sheriff's office said authorities had discovered 23 firearms and several boxes of ammunition at the boy's home. The sheriff's office noted the firearms were mounted on walls and "accessible at any time to be taken down," and unsecured handguns were also located throughout the home.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to the sheriff's office. Local television stations KING 5 and KOMO News reported that a judge ordered the boy to be held in secured detention on Sept. 8 after he pleaded not guilty to five counts, including threatening to bomb or injure property, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of fireworks.
The court has scheduled a pretrial conference for Sept. 17 and a detention review for Sept. 22, according to the television stations.
Both became school shooters: Two students found each other in online hate communities.
Authorities: Boy was 'obsessed with past school shooters'
In the Sept. 8 update, the sheriff's office said investigators found several pieces of evidence in the boy's bedroom that indicated that he was "obsessed with past school shooters and imitated similar behaviors with photos and inscriptions throughout his room."
"It appeared the suspect had everything ready to go to commit a mass shooting type of incident," the sheriff's office said. "It is unknown who or what the intended target was going to be, but it's clear it was a matter of time before a tragic incident occurred."
Deputy Carly Cappetto, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, told KING 5 that investigators believe the boy had studied previous mass shooting incidents. Cappetto added that many of the firearms that were found did not have serial numbers — meaning they were illegal — and authorities also discovered a bag that allegedly indicated that the boy was prepared for an attack, according to the television station.
The sheriff's office said investigators are looking into the boy's online activity, including social media posts. Cappetto said authorities had received community tips about the boy's social media posts, in which he bragged about "his access to firearms and his intentions to kill and create a mass shooting incident," KOMO News reported.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Office did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Sept. 9.
Report: Boy's mother says social media posts were an attempt to 'be cool'
The boy's parents have not been charged in the incident, but Cappetto noted that that could change as the investigation continues, according to KING 5.
"This is going to be a very interesting case to follow because, for the first time, we don't have a victim, right? We don't have an act of violence that was actually carried out, because we stopped it," Cappetto told the television station.
In an interview with KOMO News outside of the courtroom, the boy's parents asserted that their son had no intention of harming anyone. The boy's mother also suggested that the social media posts were an attempt to "be cool" among peers, KOMO News reported.
'Sick of holding my breath': Parents nationwide wrestle with fear of school shootings
Shootings, gun violence incidents at schools in the United States
While the Pierce County Sheriff's Office noted that it was able to bring "closure to something that could have harmed our community," school shootings and threats of gun violence continue to plague campuses across the country.
As of Sept. 9, the Gun Violence Archive has documented at least 550 incidents related to gun violence on U.S. campuses in 2025. In 2024, the organization reported nearly 1,000 incidents. The Gun Violence Archive is a non-profit organization that collects data on gun violence incidents in the United States.
Several incidents have already made national headlines this year, including the Minneapolis Catholic school and church shooting in late August. Authorities said the suspect had approached the outside of the Annunciation Catholic Church, which also houses a school, and fired inside — killing two children and injuring more than a dozen others.
Earlier this year, a mass shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee left two people dead and at least five others were injured by gunfire. The suspect was identified as a 20-year-old student at the university.
Campuses are also a common site for hoax active shooter reports, which often causes mass panic and sends students fleeing for safety. Also known as swatting, they're defined as false reports of serious crimes intended to spark a heavy law enforcement response.
"It's an enormous problem," Elizabeth Jaffe, associate professor at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, whose focus is cyberbullying and social media, previously told USA TODAY. "One incident is a major problem, so if we've got hundreds and thousands, it's an evolving epidemic."
Estimated swatting incidents increased from 400 in 2011 to more than 1,000 in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which cited a former FBI agent whose expertise is in swatting. And from January 2023 to June 2024, more than 800 instances of swatting were recorded at elementary, middle, and high schools, according to the K-12 School Shootings Database.
Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers and Michael Loria, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 23 guns seized from 13-year-old accused of making shooting threats
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