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South Carolina Student Planned to Bomb High School - Chesterfield High

Posted: 20 Apr 2008 10:21 PM CDT

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal.

A high school senior, Schallenberger had collected enough supplies to carry out the bomb attack and detailed the plot in a diary that included maps of the building and admiring notes about the Columbine killers.

The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.

“The only thing left was delivering the bombs,” the police chief said.

Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.

He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn’t detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.


From The Herald Online - Rock Hill S.C.

The parents of 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger became concerned after 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate were delivered to their house Saturday, authorities said. They then found a lengthy journal with maps and details of a planned attack the teen called “Columbine III.” That’s when they called police.

The senior at Chesterfield High School, about 65 miles southeast of Rock Hill, was arrested and jailed, charged with making bomb threats. Authorities say more charges could come today.

Officers believe Schallenberger planned to act alone — all the journal entries and descriptions of plans are written with singular pronouns.

“He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him — the rich, boys with good-looking girlfriends,” Lear said.

Police found bomb-making materials in the Schallenberger family’s home Saturday evening, Chesterfield Police Chief Randall Lear said. They also confiscated the journal and an audiotape they said Schallenberger planned to leave behind after the attack. Lear wouldn’t say what was on the tape, but said he believes his department intercepted a serious threat.

“There’s no doubt about it that he planned to go off,” Lear said. “He had everything he needed to do what he said he was going to do. From all indications, he had no plans of coming out of it alive.”

His parents could not be reached for comment.

Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the Schallenberger’s property until sundown on Saturday, and the State Law Enforcement Division used a helicopter to fly over the area, looking for anything suspicious. Officers called off the search when it got dark and started again Sunday morning.

By Sunday night, they hadn’t discovered any guns or other weapons that belonged to Schallenberger or anything else they considered suspect.

In his writings, Lear said Schallenberger wrote that he admired the two teens who killed 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, Lear said.

Investigators interviewed friends and casual acquaintances of the teen, sending tremors through the town of 1,500 on Sunday, the nine-year anniversary of Columbine.

“People are rattled,” Lear said, adding that fear was amplified because Schallenberger’s actions never hinted at something like this. “We never had a problem with him, as far as I know. He never even had any school discipline. He didn’t wear black clothing.”