Two Lee County teens appeared in front of a judge yesterday after being sent to jail on Saturday for planning a school massacre.
Phillip Byrd, 14, and Connor Pruett, 13, will be placed in secure juvenile prison for 21 days.
According to reports, the teens were detained on Thursday and held for a mental health assessment after a Harns Marsh Middle School resource officer was informed of a student who had a gun in his bag.
No gun was found on either student; however, the officer did reveal that the students discussed the school shooting over lunch. According to police, witnesses were questioned, and a map of the school’s surveillance cameras was found.
Sheriff Carmine Marceno claimed the two were planning a school massacre similar to the Columbine in Colorado and Parkland in Florida.
On Sunday, a judge stated that he believed the two teenagers committed a juvenile offense.
“He’s just a little boy,” Carrie Tuller, Byrd’s mother, came in court to defend her son; she said, “He didn’t think this was really serious. He didn’t think they were serious.”
She stated that Byrd would be changing schools.
Both Pruitt and Byrd were told to avoid the school and have no contact with the staff.
