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Police: Boy who committed suicide in school bathroom planned school shooting

Posted at 1:21 PM, Mar 01, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-02 10:57:58-05

Authorities say the 7th-grader who committed suicide inside a middle school bathroom in Stark County last week planned to carry out an attack on the school.

According to Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink, the Jackson Memorial Middle School student admired the Columbine shooters and had an eight-step plan to carry out an attack.

The boy "intended to conduct a school shooting and harm others," Brink said. 

On Feb. 20, police responded to Jackson Memorial Middle School in Stark County after receiving a call about a student who had shot himself in the boy's bathroom.

According to the medical examiner's office, the boy died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Security cameras captured the 13-year-old on video coming out of the restroom with a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle he had brought to school under his clothes.

Four other students were in the hallway near the bathroom when the boy came out of the restroom with the gun before he headed back to the restroom and shot himself, police said.

Police said the other students were unaware he was standing nearby with a gun.

Another student, who was in the bathroom with the boy, alerted school officials.

Investigators said it doesn't appear the boy shared his plan with anyone else and didn't have much of a presence on social media.

RELATED: 7th-grade student who shot self at Jackson middle school has died from injuries

Authorities found the boy's plan on his phone. According to the plan, police say the teen didn't expect to survive the school shooting, had he gone through with it.

"I'm going to die doing it, I hate those people, when they interview my parents and ask how they didn't see the signs they should know it's not them it's me and it's because of how I see the world...I'd hurt and destroy something bigger but my school's an easy target," the boy wrote.

The teen claimed the school shooting would be "bigger than anything this country has ever seen," and said he had been planning it for several weeks.

"I will never be forgotten, I'll be a stain in American history," he wrote. "It's going to be so much fun. They won't expect a thing."