Three Teens Charged in Attempted Columbine Repeat

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:08:00 GMT

By Kimberly Rappoli ‘07

East High School, where WIlliam Cornell and Shawn Sturtz planned the attack.

Depressed by their constant social failure and sick of the constant bullying in school, two high school students and one graduate student planned an attack on East High School, Wisconsin. For two years, 17-year-old high school students William Cornell and Shawn Sturtz planned the attack and agreed to put a Columbine-style end to their lives. The two students were accompanied by an 18-year-old graduate student, Bradley Netwal who “only went along with the plan because he didn’t want his friends to think he was a coward” said the police the day after. The teens' suspected plan was out in the open when Matt Atkinson, a friend of both Cornell and Sturtz, told a principal at their school about it. Sturtz and Cornell were arrested at school within hours; Netwal was arrested the next day. “The teens had collected a small arsenal of guns and bombs” investigators said. They found a sawed-off shotgun, nine rifles, countless knives, pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Cornell also made his own explosives using gasoline, which he and Netwal tested in the woods last winter, the complaint said. Netwal told police that they planned to use the explosives in the attack. Among the stash there was a black leather trench coat, camouflage clothing, gas masks, two-way radios and a book titled "Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge." Investigators said the teens planned to set off bombs near bathrooms, light exits on fire and shoot people who they didn't like at East High School. They planned to light the exits on fire with jelled gasoline so no one could escape, CNN reported. Cornell and Sturtz watched the court hearing from Brown County Jail via a video link-up. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for them for Sept. 29, and Netwal was scheduled to appear in court Friday said police. Sturtz told his attorney he was going to "shoot the place up." The attorney then asked him if he meant like the Columbine incident and he replied "Well, yeah, exactly." Sturtz told his attorney he had a "bunch of rage" because a girl from California he'd been talking to over the Internet had dumped him the night before. In a story reported by CNN it was said that Sturtz even laid down in the road for a few minutes, hoping someone would run him over. Cornell told police he was in love with an East student, but she was engaged to someone else, according to the complaint. The student then said Cornell had talked about staging an attack on the school or a library so police would kill her fiancé. "I am so sorry I have to go," said a note that police found in Cornell's room. "Maybe I will find someone in next life. Sometimes I think that I must have done something wrong and God is punishing me...Don't be sad when I'm gone." Sturtz's mother said her son was kicked out of the school last year for bringing a knife to the school because he felt he needed protection. He was assigned to an alternative school for the last part of the year. "He didn't want to go to school because of the kids and he knew the teachers wouldn't do anything because we tried last year” said Elizabeth Sturtz, mother of Shawn. Shawn also got teased because of his learning disability. Prosecutors charged the three teens with conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide, punishable by up to 60 years in prison. They were also charged with conspiracy to commit damage of property by use of explosives, which carries up to 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. CBS tells readers, Cornell was also charged with possessing explosives and a short-barreled shotgun, a charge that carries up to 18 1/2 years in prison and $35,000 in fines.

The Bobcat Review

Three Teens Charged in Attempted Columbine Repeat