How a “hero” Tennessee Gamer stopped a mass shootout that was allegedly planned in a city in California

The quick thinking of a young player in an online chat room thwarted an obvious shooting at school at a height of 2,000 miles.

Two boys, 14 and 15 years old, allegedly planned a school at the Evergreen Institute of Excellence in the North California city of Cottonwood to kill up to 100 people, said Sheriff Dave Kain, Sheriff of Tehama County, at a press conference on Tuesday.

The two teenagers, who were not named as a minor due to their status, supposedly wanted to kill one of their parents before they carried out the attack. The co-configurers supposedly wrote a manifesto, posed for photos that wore the same clothing as the perpetrators of the Columbine Mass Shooting from 1999, and revealed their scheme in the chat of an online game.

“That was serious,” said Kain at the Tuesday conference. “It would have changed our community as a whole.”

A Tennessee boy read the annoying messages of the alleged shooters and taken measures. On the evening of May 9, he called the office of the Sheriff of the Tehama district and provided them with the Gamer Day of the suspect and the content of the chat.

Kain said that the sharp instincts of the young life could have saved.

“This young man had the courage and heroic instinct to call our agency and notify us in order to reduce a possible threat to our citizens and possibly our young people,” said the sheriff. “Our investigators took this tip seriously from the start.”

Would you like to keep pace with the latest crime reporting? Register for the free newsletter from People True Crime for Breaking Crime News, ongoing court hearing and details on fascinating unresolved cases.

Kain said the investigators sent the photos of the two teenagers as the Columbine shooters – with chat protocols from the teenager – to school administrators who quickly identified the two teenagers.

Improvised explosive devices, of which the investigators believed they were made for the prospective attack, and firearms were found in the teenage house when search commands were executed, said Kain.

The California duo had intended to carry out its attack on May 9, according to Sheriff, but the other way around the course after one of them withdrawn from the plan.

It is unclear what the two boys motivated – Cain said that they were talking about being bullied when he was interviewed by investigators.

Both boys were suspected of suspected criminal threats, possession of a destructive device, the production of a destructive device and conspiracy to commit a crime, said Kain. The investigators also work with prosecutors and consider a potential additional indictment for conspiracy to commit mass murder.

The teenagers appeared in court on Thursday, where the deposit was refused, the public prosecutor’s office of the Tehama district wrote in a statement.

Kain said that the threat to the two minors was isolated in custody, but that Sheriff had spoken with administrators about introducing additional security measures at the school. The sheriff said that his son returned to class in the same middle school as a sign of trust on Monday.

Although the department gave no details about the fast-thinking Tennessee boy, Kain said that his parents were invited to Tehama County to be recognized.