Colorado teens plot high school shooting rampage

Two Colorado teens hiding out in a trailer east of Bloomfield, Colorado, planned a mass shooting this week at Dove Creek High School using stolen firearms.

Colo. teens plot school shooting; arrested in San Juan County after stealing firearms 

By James Monteleone
The Farmington Daily Times, CO (www.daily-times.com)
April 9, 2009

BLANCO -- Two Colorado teens planned a mass shooting at Dove Creek (Colo.) High School before being arrested Monday while hiding out in a trailer east of Bloomfield, authorities revealed Wednesday.

David Taylor, 16, and Cody Barr, 19, were identified after the Dolores County Sheriff's Office confirmed the reported shooting threat was made by the teens, both of Dove Creek, who also were wanted for the theft of 10 firearms, the majority of which were stolen from Taylor's grandparents.

The attack was planned to occur Tuesday at the Dove Creek school, located west of Cortez, Colo., near the Utah border.

Following their arrest on burglary charges, the teens told local San Juan County Sheriff's detectives that they planned to split up during the school attack: Taylor intended to kill the school principal, superintendent and "whoever else he could find" while Barr would lay in wait on the school roof to shoot at students and teachers fleeing the building during the mass shooting, Undersheriff Mark McCloskey said.

"I was told (spring break) got in the way of their plans. They were going to do it on a certain day and they discovered the school was closed, and they had to regroup," McCloskey said.

When classes at Dove Creek High School resumed Monday, authorities already had learned of the threat from a student's parents, said Dolores County Sheriff Jerry Martin.

"It was certainly a valid threat," Martin said. "I think (Taylor) had full intentions of making that threat a reality."

Exacerbating the threat was the reported theft of a semi-automatic handgun and 200 rounds of ammunition taken from a vehicle in Dove Creek on Saturday, the Colorado sheriff said.

"It raised the intensity of this threat to probably the highest level it could," Martin said.

It's unclear whether the pair was involved in that burglary.

Dolores County Sheriff's Office deputies stood guard outside Monday while the school building was placed on lockdown, which included locking students inside their classrooms, said Dove Creek Vice Principal Ty Gray.

Following the arrest of Taylor and Barr on Monday, the 80-student school resumed normal operations the next day.

A letter to students' parents regarding the averted threat is being drafted by school officials, the vice principal said.

"We tried to carry on as best we could while we had the doors locked, just checking everybody who walked inside the school," Gray said.

Taylor, a former Dove Creek student, claimed he was expelled from the school last year, the San Juan County Sheriff's Office said.

Dove Creek High School officials disputed that fact, and said the teen never was expelled, but rather chose to stop attending classes and rejected proposed alternative methods to earn a high school diploma through the high school, Gray said.

"He didn't really have discipline problems, he just didn't come to school," Gray said.

Barr never attended Dove Creek High School.

Taylor and Barr were found staying in a fifth-wheel trailer on a relative's property off County Road 4800 in Blanco. The pair was taken into custody by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office without incident Monday afternoon.

No guns were found at the trailer. However, authorities did find the teens possessed approximately $3,000 and methamphetamine, McCloskey said.

Four rifles, including an M1 carbine, a shotgun and two .22-caliber rifles, were found at various locations where the pair admitted hiding the stolen goods. The teens are believed to have taken as much as $21,000 in cash.

Both Taylor and Barr are anticipated to be extradited from San Juan County today, the Dolores County sheriff said.

In addition to felony burglary charges, Taylor and Barr could be charged with planning a school shooting, a misdemeanor law in Colorado drafted after the fatal shootings at Columbine High School in 1999.

The Dolores County sheriff commended the efficient response taken by San Juan County law enforcement to quickly get Taylor and Barr into custody, as well as the cooperation of Dove Creek High School officials in responding to the threat of violence.

"You can plan and plan and plan for these events until you actually become involved in one, you never know how smoothly your plan is going to work," Martin said. "I was very impressed with how the school reacted to it."

Information on the shooting threat was first released Wednesday after Dolores County law enforcement requested details be withheld until Taylor and Barr were extradited. The Dolores County Sheriff's Office later retracted that embargo.

While threats of violence often are merely a prank, local school officials say every threat is seriously addressed.

"We don't take any risks. We take everything seriously," Farmington schools Superintendent Janel Ryan said. "We do have all of our safety plans, we do have the process, we do have everything in order. We are on alert, especially this time of the year (when) it seems to escalate sometimes."

James Monteleone:
jmonteleone@daily-times.com
505-564-4638

http://www.schoolsafetypartners.org/School-Response/169.html
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_12104045
Reprinted by permission of The Farmington Daily Times, CO (www.daily-times.com).