Bomb Plotter's Estranged Father: Son Has 'A Lot of Devils'

(Editor's note: This story was updated at 6:00 p.m.)

Teen Jared Michael Cano sits locked up, charged with plotting to blow up Freedom High School on the first day of class.

And his estranged father is having a hard time digesting what he is seeing on the news, according to TBO.com.

"I don't know what he did," Alexander Cano III told the newspaper. "I have no idea what's going on with him. But he needs some help. He needs some serious help. We all have our devils. But apparently he has a lot of devils."

The elder Cano, who has not seen his son in more than five years, told TBO.com he loves his son and that will do anything to help him. He also said he tried to see Jared at the Juvenile Assessment Center but was not permitted to do so.

"Where was his mother at?" he said to the newspaper.

Mother Michelle Cano, who is divorced from Alexander, works at Riverview High School as a math teacher. 

Jared Cano, 17, was arrested and charged Tuesday, Aug. 16, with "threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device."

Authorities said they found a diary with "very specific" and "minute-by-minute" details for wreaking havoc after receiving a tip late Tuesday morning, Aug. 16. The diary targeted specific administrators and any students who happened to be nearby during the planned incident. Police said it also included schematic drawings of rooms inside the educational facility and "disturbing statements about his intent to kill."

Authorities searched Cano's New Tampa home and uncovered the bomb-making materials needed for the teen to carry out such a plot: shrapnel, plastic tubing, as well as timing and fusing devices.

Jared Cano - who reportedly acted alone and wanted to surpass Columbine in the number of casualties - faces additional charges of possession of bomb-making materials, cultivation of marijuana because authorities found plants growing in his room and possession of drug paraphernalia and marijuana.

The teen was expelled from Freedom High School for an off-campus incident in 2010 and may have held a grudge. After getting kicked out of Freedom, he reportedly attended another school, left there on his own and was not scheduled to take classes at any school this fall.

Read Patch's original arrest story here.