Washington County Sheriff's Office helps thwart school shooting plot in Indiana, authorities say
Wisconsin authorities helped avert catastrophe on Valentine's Day by assisting with an investigation that thwarted a teenager's school shooting plot in Indiana.
Earlier that week, the Washington County Sheriff's Office investigated a 19-year-old woman from the Town of Addison who ultimately was not behind the plot but helped lead authorities to the main suspect, according to a Feb. 14 news release from the sheriff's office.
The Addison woman had been part of Discord group about school shooters with the main suspect, who had possessed weapons and photographs of previous mass shooters, according to an anonymous tipster.
On Feb. 12, Trinity Shockley, 18, was arrested in Mooresville, Indiana, and confessed to both the school shooting plot and a desire to murder her friend, according to the sheriff's office.
Shockley, who goes by the name Jamie, was charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder that does not result in death, according to Indiana court records. She also faces two felony counts for threats to commit terrorism.
She is being held without bond, although a contested bond hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18.
According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office:
An anonymous tip about threats to commit a school shooting on Valentine's Day was received on Monday, Feb. 10, by the Sandy Hook Promise Violence Hotline, an anonymous tip line launched by parents who lost children in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Hotline operators forwarded the tip ― which attributed the shooting threats to two social media accounts on Discord and Snapchat ― to the FBI.
The FBI had a difficult time tracking the Discord account, but was able to trace the Snapchat account to the 19-year-old woman from the Town of Addison, Washington County Sheriff's Lt. Tim Kemps told the Journal Sentinel on Monday.
The agency passed the tip to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Washington County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center, the release said.
The 911 dispatcher working at the time recognized the seriousness of the threat and immediately contacted the shift supervisor to place the Addison suspect's house under surveillance.
Investigators worked throughout the evening on Feb. 10 to communicate with the tipster who was in real-time communication with the actual suspect in Indiana and shared screenshots of their conversations that included pictures of weapons, magazines, a tactical vest, and screenshots of the suspect's bedroom which had numerous photographs of past school shooters.
The next morning, the Sheriff's Office Multi-Jurisdictional SWAT team conducted a search warrant on the 19-year-old's residence.
She fully cooperated with authorities, and investigators quickly learned that she was not the person making the reported threats, and there were no local schools at risk of being targeted. Instead, she was connected to the actual suspect via a social media chat group about school shooters.
Investigators returned to the informant and coached them into obtaining the true suspect's phone number, which revealed their actual location in Indiana. This information was forward to the FBI's Indianapolis Field Office.
Shockley was arrested in Mooresville on Feb. 12.
Washington County Sheriff Martin Schulteis expressed deep gratitude toward both the tipster and his own agency. 'As I sit back and think about the gravity of this investigation and what horrific outcomes could have occurred if it does not play out the way it did, I cannot help but be humbled by the dedication and performance of my staff,' Schulteis said in the release.
The Sheriff's Office said no charges related to the shooting threat are expected to be filed against the 19-year-old from Addison, as authorities have not uncovered evidence to suggest she was connected to the school shooting plot, Kemps told the Journal Sentinel.
On Monday, Kemps said the Sheriff's Office is still conducting a threat assessment but has so far not uncovered any threats of violence from the Addison woman.
Asked about the tipster, Kemps said they were a person involved in these groups out of interest in true crime.
"It was someone monitoring these groups, I think, to do good," Kemps said. "They certainly did good in this instance. When they were concerned that there was actually something going on, they reported it immediately."
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin authorities helped thwart a school shooting plot in Indiana
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