Student Obsessed With ISIS Tried To Detonate A Bomb In His School

This is scary as all get out. It could’ve been really, really bad. Thankfully, people saw something, said something, and authorities responded accordingly.

A student at Pine View High School tried to detonate a bomb in the school. Students noticed a backpack that was “smoking and sizzling” and immediately alerted the school’s resource officer.

St. George Utah Police are crediting “extremely perceptive” students and fast-acting law enforcement for stopping what could have been a deadly attack at Pine View High School.

“After examining the device, bomb squad members indicated that if it had detonated the device had the potential to cause significant injury or death,” Ofc. Lona Trombly of the St. George Police Department said in a press release.

This could’ve been absolutely devastating.

“I could smell a smoke smell and my friends actually saw it before I did,” Jack Whalen, the teen who found the bag said and continued to explain that he looked inside the smoking bag.

They immediately notified faculty who contacted the school’s resource officer who called in the threat to law enforcement.

NEW: @sgcitypubsafety is charging the suspects “failed attempt to detonate a homemade explosive” inside Pine View High School yesterday with:

76-10-402: Manufacture, possession, sale, use or attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction prohibited.

📸 –> Jack Whalen pic.twitter.com/gJQ5Q8OZ74

— D.J. Bolerjack (@DJBolerjack) March 6, 2018

NEW: Student who found smoking bag with device in it also looked inside that bag & found “A box of matches, there was a canister in it…”

“That [canister]was round, really fat, and it had a little lid on it.”
More details about this students find at 6. pic.twitter.com/GcmjCrtlas

— D.J. Bolerjack (@DJBolerjack) March 6, 2018

NEW: Student who found the “suspicious package” in Pine View High School took this video of someone being escorted by police. #kutv2news #SoUT @sgcitypubsafety @washk12 pic.twitter.com/AZcWhLVR7n

— D.J. Bolerjack (@DJBolerjack) March 5, 2018

Students at Pine View being released from school to go home. #kutv2news #SoUT
Police keeping a very strong presence at the school. pic.twitter.com/7PC01uL8r8

— D.J. Bolerjack (@DJBolerjack) March 5, 2018

As it turns out, the student (a male juvenile) who made the device had been expressing a creepy interest in ISIS. They went to his home and found items that were “consistent with the materials used to build the device placed at Pine View.”

Police say their investigation confirmed it was a failed attempt to detonate a homemade explosive at the school, but police also made another startling discovery: the suspect was researching and expressing interest in ISIS and promoting the terrorist organization.

Police believe the juvenile suspect in the failed bombing is the same suspect in a vandalism incident from February involving an ISIS flag and graffiti at Hurricane High School.

The suspect has been arrested and charged with “manufacture, possession, sale, use or attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction prohibited.”

He could’ve killed so many people. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

h/t KUTV