PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The mother of a 14-year-old boy accused of planning a "Columbine" type event at a high school was arrested Friday morning, county prosecutors say.
The mother of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy has been charged with illegally buying him an adult weapon.
1 of 2 She is accused of buying a 9 mm assault rifle for her son several weeks ago at a local gun show, in violation of "straw purchase laws."
A search of the boy's home outside Philadelphia Wednesday turned up a 9 mm rifle with a laser scope and a number of air guns, police said. No ammunition was found for the rifle.
The 14-year-old, who was taken into custody Wednesday night, appeared in juvenile court Friday morning to determine whether the county can continue to hold him in detention while authorities investigate the matter.
The mother is not alleged to have helped plot any attack, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said Thursday night.
"I don't see any evidence that leads me to conclude that she knew that this attack was planned or anything of that nature," Castor told "Anderson Cooper 360."
But he said he thinks charges against her are justified.
"I think you have a parent who has fallen down on the job in supervising the child, perhaps indulgent on the child because she knows he has issues," he said before her arrest.
Police also found seven hand grenades, four of them operational, said Joe Lawrence, deputy chief of the Plymouth Township police. Bomb-making equipment and manuals were also found.
Police told CNN the boy's mother bought the rifle for him several weeks ago at a gun show. Lawrence said police are also investigating whether she bought him the black powder used in the grenades.
Plymouth Township police say the youth could face charges that include making terroristic threats, criminal solicitation, weapons possession, and possession and manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction.
If he's found delinquent, he could face long-term detention and counseling. The boy's father could also face criminal charges pending an investigation, police said.
In addition to the weapons, authorities found a hand-painted Nazi flag and a video about the Columbine shootings, District Attorney Bruce Castor said.
"It is my judgment that this individual considered that something to be glorified and was doing so," he said.
Two students opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. They killed 13 people and wounded 23 others before killing themselves.
School officials said police acted on a tip from a Plymouth Whitemarsh High School student and his father. They said they believe the tip was prompted by Wednesday's shooting at a school in Cleveland, Ohio.
Police say they received the tip at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and took the youth into custody at his home around 10 p.m. He was "nonchalant" when arrested, Lawrence said.
The grenades were made with plastic casings that authorities believe the boy bought on the Internet, Lawrence said. The operational hand grenades included black powder, BBs and a fuse believed used in fireworks. The boy was making the grenades in his bedroom, Lawrence said.
Police also found 30 weapons that fire BBs and the 9 mm semiautomatic rifle with a magazine that could hold 30 rounds of ammunition.
District Attorney Bruce Castor said officials do not think others were involved.
"We have no information at this point that leads us to think this is other than an isolated individual who was trying to recruit others to help," he said.
"The boy who gave the tip was one who was trying to be recruited," he added. "He was a friend of the boy in the loosest terms."
Plymouth Whitemarsh High School officials said the boy is not a student at the school.
"This was a youth in the community who has not been enrolled in school since spring of 2006," said Dave Sherman, spokesman for the school.
The public high school, in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, has an enrollment of 1,591 students in grades nine through 12. No classes are being canceled because of the incident, school officials said Thursday.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/12/stu...nal/index.html
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