Two teenage boys have been charged in South Australia after police allegedly disrupted a planned school shooting. They were arrested November 10 after the plot came to the attention of police on November 3.
One, aged 18, has been charged with four counts of aggravated threats, while the other, aged 16, has been charged with solicit to murder.
Police raided the Riverland home of the 16-year-old earlier in the month, allegedly finding “weapons, homemade body armour, knives and material to make explosives“, although Detective Superintendent Des Bray, head of SA Police major crime branch, said there was no evidence that either of the boys possessed any firearms.
Bray says police do not currently believe there is any further threat:
Since their arrest police have conducted an extensive investigation of this matter which has included searches of several properties, the seizing of weapons, and interviews with dozens of people.
Police will allege that they intended to cause harm to a large number of people, however this plan was thwarted. There is no evidence to show that any other person was linked with this matter.
He believes that there was a very high chance the plan – which the boys intended to undertake sometime between June 1 and November 7 – was going to go ahead:
We believe there was a real threat, actively planned and likely to be carried out without the actions of police. It is unbelievable to think this kind of thing could have happened in South Australia.
I’m extremely grateful of the response of the local police and there is no doubt we prevented a catastrophe.
A community forum regarding the arrests was recently held in Renmark, northeast of Adelaide.
