Prosecutors charged an adult and two teens with weapons violations in connection with a Waseca student’s unfulfilled plot to set off bombs and shoot kids at a local school.
A Waseca man was charged Friday with one count of selling a pistol to 17-year-old John LaDue, who police arrested in late April after learning of his alleged plans for a Columbine-style massacre. Two juveniles, both 17, were each charged with possessing and making explosive devices with LaDue, though charging documents say they did not know of LaDue’s plan to use the explosives to kill students.
Prosecutors contend the teen was close to carrying out a plan, detailed in a 180-page notebook, to kill his mother, father and sister, then create a diversion for first responders so he could go to Waseca Junior/Senior High School to carry out a massacre.
LaDue was charged in Waseca County District Court as a juvenile with four counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree damage to property and six counts of possession of a bomb by someone under 18. Prosecutors are trying to certify him as an adult.
The adult charged Friday morning, Michael S. Jacobs, 40, admitted to selling a .45 caliber Llama handgun to LaDue in the summer or early fall of 2013, according to charging documents.
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The documents say Jacobs said he needed money and asked his son, a friend of LaDue’s, to put out "feelers" to see if anyone wanted to buy the pistol. The son said Jacobs required a note from LaDue’s father saying it was OK. LaDue’s father told police he didn’t know his son was buying the pistol until he came home with it, however. Jacobs sold the gun and one magazine to LaDue for $350 and failed to report the sale to the local police as required by law, charges allege.
Other charging documents allege that one of the teens charged Friday morning used his debit card to buy 15 pounds of potassium perchlorate from a website and had it shipped to LaDue’s house, with LaDue paying him back for the powder. The boy admitted helping make "crickets" by putting black powder into an empty CO2 cartridge and then exploding the devices on a slide in a Waseca park. The boy also admitted that he and LaDue made another explosive out of thermite and detonated it on an aluminum bench near ball fields.
The second juvenile also admitted making crickets in the upstairs of a home, then trying and failing to set them off in soccer fields at the school with LaDue.
Authorities said they found LaDue with bomb-making materials in a storage locker in late April, after a 911 caller grew suspicious when she saw the teen go inside and close the door.
LaDue soon told authorities that he had intended to kill "as many students as he could," according to the charges, by setting off pressure cooker bombs and gunning down students in the halls.
Jacobs is expected to appear in court on the felony charge on July 8.
