Hatred for a guidance counselor was the driving cause behind two Montgomery County students’ plans to bomb their Silver Spring high school, prosecutors said Thursday.
Eighteen-year-old Yonata Getachew and 17-year-old Anthony Torrence are accused of planning to throw a nail bomb at the school’s principal, beat a guidance counselor with a bag of nails and rocks, and then light gas fumes released from a pipe in Springbrook High School’s auditorium, court documents said.
Prosecutors said Principal Michael Durso became a target for supporting the counselor’s treatment of the students.
Authorities said they had been investigating a potential Columbinelike incident at the school since April 17 when school officials received an e-mail threatening violence against a staff member.
The proximity of the e-mail to the 10th anniversary of the Colorado high school massacre on April 20, 1999, raised concern among investigators and caused police to increase their presence at the school, police said.
The plot began to unravel, police say, when the duo was caught skipping class Tuesday. When a school police officer caught them, Torrence began to describe their plan to bomb the school. Police then learned they were also behind the threatening e-mail sent from a public library.
The two juniors were held without bail Thursday. Torrence’s attorney, Charles Lazar, asked the judge to leave his client in a medical unit pending a psychiatric review. But David Putzi argued his client, Getachew, should be released. He said prosecutors’ primary evidence came from statements made by Torrence.
According to Torrence’s statement to police, the two had set three fires at Springbrook earlier this spring.Torrence admitted he and Getachew had been experimenting with incendiary devices to determine how fast they would burn, documents said.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Feeney said Getachew wanted to manufacture a pen bomb that would explode in the counselor’s hand. Evidence of the pen bomb was taken from Getachew’s home Tuesday night, he said.
But Putzi said the items taken from Getachew’s Silver Spring home — nails, tennis balls, lighter fluid and fireworks — “could be found in any house.”
Mickias Getachew said his younger brother was “a great, charismatic kid” who is never disrespectful. “It was a shock to me.”
It was also a shock to their aunt, who fainted moments after bail was denied and left the courthouse in an ambulance. The teens could face life in prison if convicted.
