News of two fifth-graders murder plot is shocking. A pair of boys in eastern Washington was busted last week carrying a loaded gun and knife in a backpack. The Fort Colville Elementary School students allegedly conspired to kill a girl because she annoyed them. Additionally, they confessed to planning the murders of other students. The details just emerged Thursday.
Fox News with CTNow shared the shocking details of the murder plot by the fifth-grade boys in a Feb. 14 report. Sources say one boy was 10, the other 11.
A local prosecutor in Washington wants the kids in the school murder conspiracy to be held on charges of first-degree murder and witness tampering. Apparently, one of the boys offered to pay another classmate $80 to keep quiet about their plans.
Stevens County prosecuting attorney Timothy Rasmussen thinks the fifth-grader's plan was a murder plot and nothing else short of that.
"To me, 10- and 11-year-olds do bad things. They throw rocks through windows. They shoot BB guns at people's cars. They hit people with sticks; they set a cat on fire. Those are things that children do. But this was a plot to kill," Rasmussen said.
The incident at Fort Colville Elementary School came to light when a fourth-grade student told a teacher about witnessing a knife in the backpack of one of the boys facing charges.
After the teacher searched the friend's backpack, a 3/4-inch knife blade and .45-caliber Remington 1911 handgun and extra clip were found.
On any given day, this would be alarming. However, in the wake of recent mass shootings at Aurora and Sandy Hook Elementary School, it's understandable why officials were shocked by the finding.
Nonetheless, when the two fifth-graders in the murder plot were questioned, they allegedly confessed to planning the shooting deaths of the girl and six other students.
"I was going to kill her with the knife and [the other boy] was supposed to use the gun to keep anyone from trying to stop me or mess up our plan," said the 11-year-old boy who then offered up the names of those he and his accomplice intended to kill.
One of the boys then gave teachers and investigators a possible motive.
On the plot to kill the girl, the older boy said he and the student were friends at one point "but that he hated her now. In fact, he pointed to what sounds like possible bullying by saying the girl "had recently become rude and would pick on him."
Luckily, the fifth-graders murder plot was thwarted by other conscientious students, who did the right thing by informing teachers about the heinous conspiracy to kill others.
Ordinarily, a court says juveniles between the ages of eight and 12 are too young to know right from wrong and cannot be charged as adults, or even held accountable altogether.
However, given the recent scares of gun violence, things may very well change. In fact, a judge is scheduled to make that delicate decision in a hearing scheduled for Feb. 20.
Should the fifth-grade boys in the murder plot be charged criminally?
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