West Bloomfield Teen Charged in 'Credible' School Shooting Threat

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Three southeast Michigan teenagers, including one from West Bloomfield and another from Wolverine Lake, are in custody after allegedly conspiring to carry out mass shootings at two Genesee County schools.

The threat was “serious and credible” and the three teens had “specific targets in mind” at Linden High School and Linden Middle School 20 miles south of Flint, Argentine Township Police Chief Dan Allen told the Associated Press.

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NBC News reported Sunday that information intercepted by a school resource information and forwarded to the FBI, Michigan State Police and the Argentine Township Police Department “is they had access to weapons and they were planning to purchase weapons as well,” Allen told the network’s affiliate WEYI.

Arrested were Ryan Stevens, 18, of Linden, and Lamar Dukes, of West Bloomfield, and Cody Brewer, of Wolverine Lake, both 15 and charged as adults. Stevens is a former Linden student.

Stevens and Brewer were both charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and false report or threat of terrorism, according to The Flint Journal/Mlive.com. Dukes is charged with conspiracy – legal act/illegal manner and false report or threat of terrorism.

Though they reportedly had specific targets in mind, “from what we gathered they didn’t really care who else got in the way either,” Allen told the Flint newspaper.

Allen, who is retired from the Flint Police Department, also told The Flint Journal that small communities like Linden, with a population of about 3,900, aren’t immune to violence.

“You have to take the threats seriously, if they turn out to be credible you have to act as quickly as possible to avert the plan from happening,” he said. “I was just thankful that we could get ahead of it.”

In an email to the Flint newspaper, Linden Community Schools Interim Superintendent Russ Ciesielski said “the quick actions of our administrative staff, and law enforcement officials, helped to keep our schools out of harm’s way.”

“Based on the information we were given, and communication with law enforcement, it was decided that the situation did not call for a ‘secure-mode’ or ‘lock down,’ ” he wrote. “The investigative process is in the hands of law enforcement; we will continue to correspond and cooperate with law enforcement as new information is discovered.”

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