Sixth-Graders Were Planning Sniper Attack at School, Police Say

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Three sixth-grade boys had a “hit list” and were plotting to kill fellow classmates on the last day of school in a sniper attack during a false fire alarm, police said.

The plan was modeled after a recent ambush at a Jonesboro, Ark., school that left five dead, Lt. Dave Todd said.

Police learned of the plan after responding to a fight at Becky-David Elementary School in rural St. Charles County on Thursday. Todd said officers found a situation that was far more serious than a schoolyard brawl.

The boys planned to pull a fire alarm and then shoot students as they fled the school, Todd said. He said they got the idea from the ambush March 24 in Jonesboro, where students were shot as they filed out of school after a fire alarm was pulled. An 11-year-old and his 13-year-old friend were arrested in the shootings.

Police described the plan on the same day a 15-year-old boy allegedly killed and wounded fellow students at a high school in Springfield, Ore.

In the Missouri case, a sheriff’s officer who made regular visits to the school for an anti-drug program was credited with helping uncover the plot. The officer had learned the boys had been threatening students in recent days.