Trench Reynolds: DBKP This Week in Crime – 29

August 31-Sept 6, 2008
Volume 29

I’m Trench Reynolds.

I blog about crime.

This is DBKP’s This Week in Crime for August 31th-September 6th, 2008.

First I want to start off with an update of the story I posted about last time and that was the story of missing 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez. Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot to update on. Giovanni was featured briefly on America’s Most Wanted during Labor Day weekend and Clear Channel has donated a billboard in Lynn, Mass. asking people to call police if they have any information on him. Giovanni’s father, Ernesto Gonzalez, is still in jail refusing to talk. Meanwhile the national media is still focused on the circus sideshow that is the disappearance of Caylee Anthony. Not that I don’t hope that Caylee is found I just think that the media is focusing too much on the soap opera like aspects of it. Anyway if you want to be kept updated on the search for Giovanni Gonzalez you can go here.

So I have to apologize to DBKP readers. I took last weekend off because of the Labor Day weekend and speaking of Labor Day that usually marks when schools get into full swing for the new school year. With the way society is today along with the new school year has come a spate of plots to commit violence against the schools. Now some schools start their school years in August and that’s how far I’m going back to bring you these plots.

18-year-old Colin McKenzie-Gude of Bethesda, Maryland had already graduated from high school. That didn’t stop him from amassing a cache of weapons and explosives. Authorities also found a list of addresses of his former teachers and a map of the motorcade route that President Bush takes to Camp David. He also had forged documents that said he was a CIA agent and a U.S. contractor with protections from the Geneva Convention.

16-year-old Andrew Potts of Ardmore High School in Alabama was discovered to have been plotting an attack against his school. Potts was found to have hit lists that contained teachers and students names along with several swords and knives. Police also found Potts to be in possession of child porn in their search and Potts had been in previous trouble with the law for physically assaulting his grandmother. Potts has been charged as an adult.

Two 12-year-olds in Grand Rapids, Minnesota were arrested for planning a school shooting against Robert J. Elkington Middle School.

At Central High School 16-year-old Ryan McDonald was shot and killed by 15-year-old Jamar Siler. No motive has been released as of yet.

Not too far from me in Gastonia, NC a threat was made against Ashbrrok High School that was posted on a World of Warcraft message board. That threat turned out to be a hoax made by a juvenile from New Jersey.

18-year-old Allen Doelitsch of Boerne, Texas was arrested for plotting an attack against Samuel Champion High School, a school he didn’t even attend. Doelitsch is also accused of trying to recruit a 14-year-old into his plot. He’s blaming his actions on depression and the fact that his mom took him off his meds.

In Omaha, Nebraska 18-year-old Michael Tufly was arrested for threatening an attack against the Millard Learning Center which he attended. Tufly was an admitted ‘fan’ of Columbine and told police he was ‘mad at the world’.

Am I trying to scare you into pulling your kids from school in fear that an attack is imminent at any time? No, not at all. More often than not these plots are discovered long before they ever come to fruition. The odds of a school shooting happening on the scale of Columbine or Virginia Tech are roughly the same as winning the lottery. However that doesn’t mean that precautions shouldn’t be taken or that parents shouldn’t remain vigilant about what their children are up to. Most school shootings or plots could have been prevented if there had been just a bit more parental involvement.

by Trench Reynolds
image: Trench Network

Tags: blogs, crime, Crime roundup, trench network, trench reynolds