By Jim Forbes and Mia Rotelll
Two Girls Arrested for Planned Mass Shooting
While the latest of more than 430 mass school shootings in the U.S. since Columbine in 1999 was being reported from Bend, Oregon, just last Friday, Corona police had quietly taken into custody two 15-year-old local high school girls, who they believe were researching how to obtain firearms and past school attacks while planning such a heinous act at Corona High School.
“In all honesty, my opinion, we very likely prevented a serious tragedy from occurring,” Corona Police Lt. Robert Montanez acknowledged. “There's some information gathered during the investigation that…the detectives believe that revenge might be a motive.”
As described by Montanez, this devastating possibility was averted by communication between various entities sharing information, the system of professional collaboration working as it should.
Meta, the corporation that owns Facebook, Instagram and the encrypted WhatsApp, detected messages it deemed so alarming that it contacted the FBI. The Feds concurred and reached out to the Corona Police Department on October 6. Examining the evidence presented, Corona detectives immediately took a 15-year-old female student at Corona High School into custody.
In itʻs statement announcing the arrests, Corona P.D. disclosed, “Detectives continued with an extensive investigation, including serving numerous search warrants related to electronic devices and communications and conducted searches of several residences in Riverside County. The investigation identified a second suspect, a 15-year-old female Norco High School student, as being involved.” She too was then arrested.
Police say the two had been communicating for months.
“It wasn't a singular message. It was a lot of messages back and forth…and the content of those messages is what led to the concerns,” Montanez revealed.
Included in the messages, “they were trying to acquire firearms. That was the research they were doing, trying to look up California firearms laws, who could acquire them,” including the possibility of purchasing online, Montanez added. It is not clear whether there was ever an actual purchase attempt that was rebuffed.
As of press time, both remain in juvenile custody for suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder while the Riverside County District Attorney's office reviews the case. The D.A. has not yet discussed the arrests, and Lt. Montanez disclosed that due to their juvenile status, “there's some categories of charges that will be made public. There are some categories of charges that will not be made public.”
The Community Reacts to Planned Mass Shooting
On Wednesday, the day following the case disclosure, a smattering of Corona High students headed for a half-empty parking lot with dismissal at 3:34 pm. Media and an extra police presence contributed to an unease.
A female freshman said her friend knew one of the girls who were arrested. “My friend was on the list,” she said. “The girls made a list, and my friend was on it."
“I do know that there was a list of some individual names, both staff and student,” Montanez acknowledged, though he cautioned that it shouldn’t necessarily be characterized as a target list. But he added, “The impression that I got from the investigators was that these people might have been named individually,” but “This was gonna be a more indiscriminate event.” Investigators say they’ve found no evidence for a planned date for the attack.
Montanez describes security at the Corona Norco Unified School District (CNUSD) schools as strong, stating Corona police have a strong collaboration with both CNUSD and Riverside Sheriff's Department.
“Every school door is a big heavy metal door. Most of them are encased in block. So, the schools are very safe, and then, of course, all of our high schools have officers on site during the school day. Unsurprisingly, they're gonna have extra security and extra officers in the near future for the coming days. Again, no extra threat, but these things just make people feel more safe and secure when there's extra bodies there.”
As school dismissed on Wednesday, two male Corona High juniors paused to reflect. One revealed he felt safe because of how quickly law enforcement and school authorities responded. The other said he feels that his peers need to double-think before making irreparable mistakes. “(Our) parents should keep a closer eye on us,” he said. “We lack the maturity to think things through and properly consider the consequences”
“I don't know anything about these girls' background,” Lt. Montanez offered as he ventured deeper.
“I can't speak to anything that they've been through or anything that's happened to them. I do know that…if revenge is the motive, whatever it stems from, this is the absolute worst possible outcome for a situation like that. And, of course, I feel for these girls and what they may have gone through that led them to believe that this was their only course of action. I mean, that's obviously terrible, but these are, these are children. What they did and what they were planning to do is obviously terrible. But if there was something that led them to feel that this was their only choice, then that, of course, is also terrible.”
“This is a prime example of, see something, say something…here, fortunately, you know, the information came to us, and we were able to act in a timely manner.”