Alabama School Bomb Plot: Teacher Prevents Another Sandy Hook By Turning in Student's Journal

Impact

Derek Shrout, a 17-year-old Alabama high school student and self-described "white supremacist," was charged with attempted assault after authorities say he planned to use homemade explosives to attack fellow students at Russell County High School — reported the Associated Press via The Seattle Post Intelligencer.  

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor thinks Shrout was inspired by the December 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, because the suspect started to make journal entries as well as building small homemade explosives just three days after the massacre. 

Sheriff Taylor added Shrout described himself to the investigators as "white supremacist," and that five of the six students he named in his journal are black. The journal was reportedly found by a teacher who turned it over to authorities.

"He just talks about some students, he specifically named six students and one faculty member and he talked about weapons and the amounts of ammunition for each weapon that he would use if he attacked the school," Taylor said.

The teen terrorist, who according to the AP is thin and wears glasses, reportedly said little during a Monday initial court appearance — during which District Judge David Johnson set bond at $75,000.