Minnesota teenager John David LaDue
methodically plotted a horrific assault in three acts designed to inflict
maximum casualties in his home and school before his expected death at the
hands of a police SWAT unit, according to court documents.
An affidavit in a criminal complaint filed
in a Waseca County court paints a chilling portrait of the 17-year-old’s
preparations for what police say was intended to be a murderous rampage that
would begin at his home and, after a brief detour to set a diversionary fire,
continue at the high school he attended.
LaDue, who is charged with attempted
murder and explosives in connection with the alleged plot, amassed a
frightening arsenal over a nine-month period, including an SKS assault rifle
with 400 rounds of ammunition, a 9mm Beretta handgun with ammunition and at
least six homemade bombs, according to the affidavit by Waseca police Capt.
Kris Markeson.
The affidavit did not make clear how
LaDue obtained the weapons.
A locked guitar case in LaDue’s
bedroom, the teenager planned to kill his parents and sister with a .22-caliber
rifle to avoid making too much noise, then proceed to a rural location and
start a fire in an attempt to attract and occupy first responders.
While the blaze burned, he intended
to go to Waseca Junior & Senior High School, which he attended, and set off
pressure-cooker bombs and other explosive devices in the cafeteria. He then
would kill the school’s liaison police officer and shoot as many students as
possible before dying at the hands of police marksmen, Markeson said.
“LaDue planned on setting off pipe
bombs and throwing Molotov cocktails down the main wing corridors in the
school, and then shooting and killing students as they rushed out of the
corridors,” according to the affidavit.
In preparation for the assault, it
said, LaDue admitted he had previously detonated explosive devices at a nearby
elementary school, outside a local church and in a city park in an effort to
refine his bomb-making skills.
In addition to documenting his plan,
the journal contained entries describing LaDue’s “thoughts, plans, to-do lists,
supply lists, successes and failures (in his bomb experimentation) .. attempts
and successes he made at acquiring additional firearms and ammunition,”
Markeson said. It also outlined chillingly mundane details of the plot, such as
LaDue getting a job so he could purchase necessary supplies, getting a checking
account and debit cards and renting a storage locker to store his growing cache
of weaponry, he said.
It also described the strange
encounter on Tuesday between LaDue and police officers at a storage facility
where he had rented a unit, ultimately unraveling his plot.
Three Waseca police officers arrived
at the storage facility after a neighbor called to report that she had seen
someone sneak through her backyard and enter the commercial business from the
rear.
When the officers announced their
presence, the affidavit said, LaDue was initially defensive, but then told
Officer Tim Schroeder that he would talk to them if the officer could guess
correctly what he was doing in the storage unit. When Schroeder said he
believed LaDue had been making explosive devices, the teenager agreed to
accompany police to the Waseca Police Department, where he was subsequently
interviewed and arrested, it said.
In addition to the guns, police
recovered an array of bomb-making and related gear at LaDue’s home and the
storage locker. Other items included various containers of ball bearings, a
pressure cooker, three boxes of Remington 12-gauge shotgun shells, military
trip wire, a ski mask and a black duster/trench coat. Three 5-pound bags of
potassium perchlorate and a 10-pound bag of red iron oxide were among the array
of chemicals recovered, as well.
The criminal complaint said LaDue
told police that he originally planned the attack for April 20, the anniversary
of the Columbine High School massacre that killed 13 people in Littleton,
Colo., in 1999. He changed his plans when he realized April 20 was Easter
Sunday and school was not in session.
The Bloomington, Minn., police bomb
squad detonated the completed bombs, and members of the squad were shocked by
the amount of bomb-making chemicals and components that LaDue had in his
possession, the affidavit said.