PEARL, MISS., OCT. 7 -- Six teenagers were charged today with plotting to kill classmates at a high school where a 16-year-old last week allegedly shot and killed two students after stabbing his mother to death at home.
Two suspects also were accused of plotting to kill one teenager's father.
"I know this charge is a mistake," said James Bell, attorney for 17-year-old Donald Brooks Jr. "His father fully supports him."
The arrests began Monday night. The teenagers -- five of them students at Pearl High School, where the shooting rampage took place Oct. 1 -- pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to kill students over a 10-month period. They were jailed on $1 million bail each.
The alleged gunman who also wounded seven students last week, Luke Woodham, has pleaded not guilty to murder and aggravated assault. He is being held without bond.
Advertisement
Among the six new suspects was 16-year-old Justin Sledge, who last week provided news organizations with what he said was a document written by Woodham in which Woodham claimed to have planned the killings. Sledge said Woodham gave him the papers on the morning of the shooting.
Woodham reportedly had been picked on by other students. The letter provided by Sledge said: "I am not insane. I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society push us and we will push back."
Defense attorneys criticized the police department about the vagueness of the charges against the six students.
"It's a very scantily worded affidavit in that it simply said they conspired to commit murder and doesn't even say who," said Dale Danks, another attorney representing Sledge.
Advertisement
Police say Woodham, distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend, walked into the crowded school before class, pulled a rifle from under his trench coat and opened fire. His former girlfriend and another girl were killed, and seven students were wounded.
Police say a few hours before the school shootings, Woodham stabbed his mother to death at their home.
Police removed three students from class and took them into custody today. Sledge was not at the school; he was serving a five-day suspension for allegedly disrupting a candlelight vigil last Thursday in honor of his slain classmates. In addition to Sledge and Brooks, those arrested were: Delbert Shaw, 18; Wesley Brownell, 17; Daniel Thompson, 16; and Grant Boyett, 18.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5noKS5qsDInKpoaWluhHB9j2hncWejnsVuucisqqKro569sbWMrZyepqNisKmt0aCcnWWZo3qptcahZKybmKS8rXnSoaaorJmjtG6%2Fz6ucnmdgbn2nrphvZ2aZaZqBboDFcGxmmmeWfW5%2Bkm5qbG%2BVl7F0fsNo