Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Students plan to kill ‘thugs, preps and faculty’
Associated Press

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Two teen-age brothers and a 15-year-old friend allegedly planned to kill “thugs, preps, and faculty” in a Columbine-style bloodbath at their high school, according to police reports released Monday.

The boys then planned to climb onto the roof of New Bedford High School and shoot each other “so it was a homicide, not suicide,” according to police interviews with two students who authorities say were involved but had not yet been charged.

The students allegedly modeled themselves after the two teen-agers who carried out the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo.

They were arrested at their homes Saturday after a janitor found a letter outlining their alleged plot, which also included detonating explosives.

Authorities who searched the boys' homes found a variety of weapons, bomb-making instructions and Satanic materials.

Nearly half the 3,300 students stayed home when the school reopened Monday after a sweep by officers and bomb-sniffing dogs.

“We didn’t think we were going to find anything,” Lt. Richard Spirlet said. “But we want to put the public at ease.”

Eric McKeehan, 17, pleaded innocent Monday to charges of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and possession of ammunition. He was ordered held without bail.

His brother, Michael McKeehan, 15, and Steven Jones, 15, also were being held after pleading innocent to the same charges in closed juvenile court hearings.
The mothers of the teen-agers defended their sons.

“My kids are good kids and this has really been blown out of proportion and, you know, there’s just no way anything like that would have happened,” Carol McKeehan, the mother of Eric and Michael McKeehan, told the Boston Herald.

Susan St. Hilaire, Jones’s mother, said the charges were based on rumors and hearsay.

“These kids are good kids all of them,” she said outside the courthouse Monday, where some students had attended proceedings instead of going to school.

One student, Trisha Boucher, 14, said McKeehan’s “Goth”-style clothes and attitude were like those of many other students.

“He just looks like a normal kid,” she said Monday. “I think they're blowing it all out of proportion.”

Satanic masks, a meat cleaver, an ax and a photograph of Adolf Hitler were found in McKeehan’s bedroom, according to a police report. Police also discovered spent cartridges from five different types of guns and torture devices.

McKeehan’s lawyer, Alan Zwirblis, told The Standard Times that the evidence against his client is “sketchy” and “very contradictory.”

“I see inconsistencies, some problems with it,” he told the newspaper.

A student first alerted a teacher to the alleged plot in mid-October. Police questioned one of the teen-agers after discovering bomb-making materials at an undisclosed property the following week.

But the bomb lacked key elements that would arm it, so police could not make an arrest, Police Chief Arthur Kelly said.

School Superintendent Joseph Silva credited the student, the teacher and the janitor who found the note with stopping a potential disaster.

“When you start to think about what could possibly have happened, and the tragedy that could have taken place, you feel good that the students feel comfortable going to faculty members,” Silva said.