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Bronx High School Teacher Who Paid Students to Help Him Make Bomb Sentenced to Nearly Six Years

Students were paid $50 an hour to dismantle fireworks and store their explosive material.

A former high school teacher in New York City was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for “stockpiling explosive materials” to manufacture a “destructive device,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Christian Toro and his twin brother, Tyler Toro, both pleaded guilty to building and possessing a destructive device at their residence in the Bronx. The brothers also recruited Christian’s students to help them assemble the bomb, paying them approximately $50 an hour to dismantle fireworks and store the explosive powder contained within them, prosecutors said. The teacher also encouraged one of the students to call in a bomb threat to the school. The brothers were apprehended before they could carry out a real attack.

Law enforcement agents found the components to create a bomb at the brothers’ shared residence, as well as a handwritten diary labeled with Tyler’s name. The diary stated, among other things: “We are twin Toros strike us now, we will return with nano thermite... I am here 100%, living, buying weapons. Whatever we need.” Tyler Toro is scheduled to be sentenced next week.