FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Law enforcement officers pulled in excess of a 19-calendar year-outdated latest graduate from Okeechobee Large Faculty due to the fact the headlight on his truck was out. Then they located handwritten internet pages detailing options to get rid of everybody at his higher university.
Henry Horton IV, of Okeechobee, was arrested Thursday by Palm Beach front County Sheriff’s detectives after they uncovered his ideas for mass killings at numerous spots, according to a possible bring about affidavit, finding that he experienced done “recon” at two targets in Parkland, including Marjory Stoneman Douglas Higher School.
Requested why he would attack Stoneman Douglas, the site of a college massacre that killed 17 and wounded 17 in 2018, the affidavit suggests, Horton replied, “for attention or fame.”
Horton is now charged with prepared threats to kill or do harm. He was becoming held Friday in the Palm Beach County jail on $1 million bond, courtroom data clearly show. Should he be released, he will be positioned on property arrest with a check.
The investigation into Horton started the night time of Sept. 19, when Jupiter police officers pulled him over because of the passenger’s aspect headlight was out on his pickup truck.
Officers requested if he would consent to a research, which he did, the affidavit says.
Officers discovered handwritten papers with strategies to purchase guns and then “kill absolutely everyone at OHS” with them, a bong with burnt residue, and a few filet knives, according to the affidavit.
Agreeing to speak to the officers without having a attorney, Horton in-depth his plans to eliminate 15 persons at his previous superior college, Okeechobee Superior, on his 22nd birthday in 2026, which includes an administrator, then to go on a stabbing spree at a Miami church, according to the affidavit. He explained he desired to be killed by police afterward.
Horton told the officers that he was owning various thoughts about mass killings, and that he had admitted himself into a healthcare facility in Virginia for a psychological wellbeing evaluation for equivalent feelings.
The officers took Horton into custody underneath Florida’s Baker Act, a provision of Florida regulation allowing people today to be held at a selected establishment for up to 72 hours if they are considered to pose a threat to them selves or anyone else. He was taken to JFK North Medical center in West Palm Seashore for a mental wellbeing evaluation.
At the facility, he explained to a PBSO detective that he experienced been driving in Palm Beach County when he was stopped mainly because he was on his way to the El Rey church in Miami to do “recon” for the attack he was organizing there.
When the detective questioned him why, he explained he required to do a thing violent since his stepmother experienced kicked him out of the property. He experienced published a manifesto, which was in his truck when he was stopped.
Asked if he experienced done recon any place else, Horton told the detective that he had long gone to a church in Parkland in the vicinity of Stoneman Douglas Higher a handful of months ago, in accordance to the affidavit. His truck was spotted in the area on Sept. 11, the affidavit claims.
A few months before that, he admitted, he experienced long gone to the Parkland significant college by itself for “recon,” observing people today outdoors on a university working day and pondering “hmm, intriguing.”
The detective searched his cellular phone, discovering notes detailing various mass killing options and Google lookups of “how a lot is an AK47.” In messages with a close friend, Horton also discovered programs to get rid of his stepmother.
“She kicked me out for telling her my genuine thoughts,” he wrote. “Now I undergo in Florida in the center of nowhere.”
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