The police in Montgomery County, Maryland, have arrested a high school student, Alex Ye, on suspicion of planning a mass shooting at two schools in the county.
The FBI Baltimore Field Office notified the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) when they came across a 129-page manifesto written by Ye detailing how he would commit two mass shootings.
The 18-year-old student from Rockville, MD, was born biologically female, and their legal name is Andrea Ye; however, Ye identifies as a transgender male and goes by the name Alex.
The manifesto records in detail how Ye planned to attack Wootton High School and Lakewood Elementary School. Ye had previously attended both schools. He has been receiving online lessons from Wootton since 2022.
Ye allegedly wrote in the manifesto, “I want to shoot up a school. I’ve been preparing for months. The gun is an AR-15. This gun is going to change lives tomorrow … As I walk through the hallways, I cherry pick the classrooms that are the easiest targets.”
In one particularly chilling paragraph, Ye talks about shooting up his former elementary school because “little kids make easier targets.”
Alex Ye wrote in detail about planned Montgomery County school attacks
Ye also declared that we would try to decapitate as many victims as possible with a knife. He wrote about another elementary school shooting on the news and how he could “beat” the “kill count.”
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelAccording to police documents, Ye has claimed the manifesto is his “memoir” or autobiography.” But he also called it a fictional work about a transgender boy who exacts revenge because he is being bullied at school.
An eyewitness told the police that the manifesto was uncomfortably close to Ye’s real life.
A police investigation also uncovered social media posts and web searches that implied he was planning a brutal attack.
In December, Ye wrote in an online message chat, “My homicidal ideation has been getting worse lately to the point I might act on it eventually,” and later added, “I’d want to kill a lot of people, or it wouldn’t be worth it.”
Montgomery County student Alex Ye was hospitalized for violent expressions
Ye began receiving inpatient care in 2022 after he threatened a school shooting and expressed other violent and suicidal thoughts.
He was released from a hospital in January 2023, but according to witnesses and the police, he has continued to express violent intent.
The MCPD is planning a press conference for Friday, April 19.