Florida police say two elementary school students hatched a plan to murder one of their fellow classmates following a squabble last month—and brought tools to school to follow through with the crime. The children allegedly said they would then escape the scene, which police said they had hand-drawn maps of, using a golf cart.
The male suspects, aged 10 and 11 years old, attended Roberts Elementary School, located in Tallahassee, where the plot reportedly unfolded, according to a police report obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat.
According to officials, the 11-year-old male victim got into a fight with one of the boys before the two students planned to murder him.
Details reveal Roberts Elementary students planned to 'murder another student' https://t.co/maKzUO2o16
— Tallahassee Democrat (@TDOnline) January 16, 2019
Authorities said one of the fifth grade suspects told the victim on December 10 that “he was going to kill him.” The purported victim then reported the confrontation to “an administrator who put the student [who made the threat] in timeout,” according to the police report.
Police allege that on December 13, “a girl told the victim a secret,” which the boy “didn’t want to hear.” She then reportedly told the two suspects about what occurred, who then told the boy they would “take care of him and kill him.”
Officials said another student came forward and told detectives that the suspects had drawn a map where they planned to carry out the killing—a spot that apparently lacked cameras. However, they eventually decided they “were going to take the victim to the garden instead,” according to police.
The following day after school let out, authorities said the two young suspects asked the boy, “Do you want to go in the secret hideout at the garden?” The boy then reportedly declined the offer, apparently aware of the gruesome plot the boys allegedly had in mind.
The victim then rushed to a school official, saying “the two students were going to kill him,” the report state. A subsequent search revealed a bag “with a wrench, baseball batting gloves, adjustable clamp pliers, and a multitool with a blade on it,” according to officials. When the school’s principal inquired about the tools, police said the boy who brought them indicated they belonged to his dad, “and he was trying to return them to him.”
The suspects had allegedly shown other students the tools, but not without warning them that “snitches get stitches,” police said.
When questioned by officials, the suspects apparently said their intention wasn’t to murder the boy, but “to beat him up.”
The two suspects were subsequently suspended from school, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, who added that school officials intend on suggesting they be expelled. Police issued the suspects “juvenile citations” stemming from the matter.
“This obviously is a very serious matter. We were aware the two boys plotted to harm another boy at the school,” Superintendent Rocky Hanna said, according to the newspaper. “There is zero tolerance in our school system for violence or threats of violence. The individuals who participate in these types of behavior will suffer severe consequences, as these two young boys.”
[Feature Photo: Pexels]
