Maryland school shooting averted after teen arrested: police

A US teenager accused of planning a mass shooting has been arrested after sharing a copy of a story he wrote describing the attack, police say.

Alex Ye, 18, was arrested in Maryland after an investigation by the FBI and Montgomery County police.

Investigators said the high school student wrote a 129-page “memoir” in which he described attacking a school in the hopes of becoming famous.

He shared the document with another person, who reported it to police.

“In the document, [Mr] Ye writes about committing a school shooting, and strategizes how to carry out the act,” police said in charging documents.

The witness who shared the alleged attack plans with police had been sent a chapter of the story on Instagram by Mr Ye. The two previously met at a psychiatric facility.

The witness informed police that there were “striking similarities between the main character” and Mr Ye. The story centres on a character who is transgender and bullied in school, officials said, adding that the witness said elements were pulled from Mr Ye’s life and not fictional.

Officials said the story, which they describe as a “manifesto”, is evidence that he contemplated attacking an elementary school with a semi-automatic assault rifle.

Investigators also obtained handwritten drawings of violent shooting scenes, and online chat logs in which he threatens mass violence. Ye is charged with threats of mass violence.

Mr Ye, who was born female as Andrea Ye but now uses male pronouns, previously was hospitalized for one month in 2022 for threatening to “shoot up school”.

As a result of the probe, police increased security at local public schools, although they said he had not attended his high school in several years and had been studying online.