THWARTED

Would-Be School Shooter Arrested Before Carrying Out Plans

Joshua Alexander O’Connor, 18, claimed he was “learning from past shooters.”

In Everett, Washington, an 18-year-old was turned in to police by his grandparents after they reportedly found weapons in his room and alarming journal entries that claimed he was “learning from past shooters.” Joshua Alexander O’Connor was arrested Tuesday after his grandmother found a semi-automatic rifle in his guitar case. She also showed police a journal, which reportedly described plans to shoot up his school and an armed robbery he conducted to buy weapons. “I’m preparing myself for the school shooting,” O’Connor allegedly wrote. “I can’t wait. My aim has gotten much more accurate… I can’t wait to walk into that class and blow all those [expletives] away.” Police believe that O’Connor is connected to a convenience-store robbery that happened on Monday. In his journal, O’Connor “described feeling powerful as he held the cashier at gunpoint[.]” Police also found inert grenades, masks, and a jacket that matched the one that the gunman wore during the armed robbery.