Many parents of school shooters ignore glaring warning signs. This grandmother didn't.

[iemanja]

She had seen her grandson’s red, spiral-bound notebook before that night, but now, as Catherine O’Connor sifted through its pages for the first time, what she read astonished her.

“School Shootings,” Joshua O’Connor had titled the first page, above a reconstruction of the Columbine High School massacre that left 13 people dead. In the pages that followed, Joshua, who’d just turned 18, described a detailed plan to carry out his own massacre: the shotguns, pistols, assault rifle and ammunition he would buy and the bombs he would build; the doors he would zip-tie “so bitches can’t escape”; the spot by the bleachers where he would set off the first explosion; the route he would take on his killing spree; the moment, when it was over, that he would end his own life.

“I Need to make this shooting/ bombing... infamous,” he wrote in early 2018. “I Need to get the biggest fatality number I possibly can.”

Catherine O’Connor, a retired probation officer who was Joshua’s guardian, showed the journal to her husband, who was equally disturbed. The next day, after O’Connor dropped her grandson off at school, she searched his room and found a semiautomatic rifle in a guitar case. Then she did what many parents of school shooters never do: called the police to report that a child she loved posed a threat to his classmates, his community and himself.

WaPo paywall: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/09/parents-school-shooters-charges-crumbleys/

Police found bomb parts in Joshua's room. The day after his grandmother called the police and Joshua was taken into custody, the Parkland shooting happened. He was later sentenced to 22.5 years in jail.

Link to tweet

Video from a VA local TV station:

https://www.kiro7.com/news/north-sound-news/teen-who-plotted-school-bombing-apologizes-calls-grandmother-the-hero-/919312094/


I know Joshua O'Conner was a threat and had to be placed in prison, but I can't help thinking about the light sentences for the Capitol Hill attackers who went through with the violence they planned.

[dflprincess]

1. I have to wonder if he'll get the psychiatric help he clearly needs.

If he serves the full sentence he'll only be 41 when he gets out and still capable of doing a lot of damage if he hasn't been helped.

[iemanja]

12. If you watch the video linked at the bottom of the OP

Last edited Sun Dec 12, 2021, 01:48 AM - Edit history (1)

It does APPEAR that he may be improving.

[dflprincess]

22. Thanks for pointing that out

Though I'm still wondering if prison is the place for him at all. Continued impatient therapy would probably benefit him and society more.

[Wingus Dingus]

2. 22 years is too punitive--it will deter parents and other guardians and relatives

from reporting the plans to the police.

[Skittles]

3. agreed

will he be getting any psychiatric help?

[Wingus Dingus]

5. I don't know. His life is pretty much ruined.

If I was his grandmother, I'd be haunted by that. I'd be wondering if I could have just confiscated the guns and gotten him involuntarily hospitalized. Who would have thought that plans alone, by an angry mentally ill teenager, could result in a sentence like that?

[iemanja]

7. He was also the suspect in a convenience store robbery

and was found with a grenade and a pressure cooker bomb. See the video in the final link in the OP.

[Wingus Dingus]

10. The robbery and illegal explosives does change things--

but 22 years, still a very long time. Ten years might have made more sense.

[samnsara]

14. wonder if the judge wanted to make sure it extended past the life of his grandparents

[Wingus Dingus]

18. I don't know. I read in some of the WaPo comments that the judge went

for the minimum sentence in terms of sentencing guidelines for the charges he faced.

[iemanja]

4. I agree.

[Wingus Dingus]

8. The flip side is Aidan Ingalls who plotted a 2018 school shooting in Michigan, was

turned in by his mother--served a couple years in juvenile detention I think, and then went out this summer and randomly shot a couple on a pier and then killed himself.

https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2021/09/south-haven-pier-shooter-videotaped-himself-loading-bullets-into-2-gun-magazines-police-report.html

[LisaL]

13. Clearly juvenile detention was completely inadequate for someone like Aidan Ingalis.

That poor couple.

[Wingus Dingus]

16. Yes, that was shocking and so random.

His emotions and thoughts were so compartmentalized that he went through a lot of trouble to prepare envelopes and give his money away to his favorite coworkers, and wrote to his family to say that it wasn't their fault, and then...turned into a vicious cold blooded killer to a nice older couple just enjoying a walk on a pier. He obviously needed WAY more care and supervision than they thought. Edit to add, it started off like a planned suicide, I wonder why he had to kill people first.

[Cha]

26. I don't think 22 years is too much

to be saving kids lives form shooters hell bent on killing them.

In this case his Grandma is a hero.

That story is a heartbreaking tragedy as they all are.

[SYFROYH]

6. Its hard to turn in those you love.

But she really did save lives.

Of course what she found was way more than a “warning sign”, but still… hard to do.

[tblue37]

17. The Unabomber was turned in by his brother.

[bullwinkle428]

9. We've become completely dependent on "ordinary people" to be the heroes

in these situations. Check out my thread on the two students in a group Snapchat that managed to alert police hours before a massacre was to take place at a Florida university:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216136145

[iemanja]

11. Yes, I had already read

and rec'd your thread. That was good news.

I don't know what the solution is to relying on ordinary people. We wouldn't want a surveillance state so vast it could see what everyone was planning.
Though some gun control laws would be nice.

[MustLoveBeagles]

15. She did the right thing

I can't imagine what this women's been through. I really hope his change of heart is sincere. If that's the case maybe he can get released early for good behavior.

[Archae]

19. Case in Pennsylvania too, two teenagers had weapons and were casing the school.

Sheesh.

A number of semi-auto "ghost guns."

https://www.rawstory.com/school-shootings-2656001465/

[iemanja]

23. Such a relief they caught them

before they had a chance to kill people.

[SarcasticSatyr]

20. Man, that's a tough one ...

I think 22.5 years was too long, unless he was deemed to be an ongoing threat. He needed serious long-term therapy, and yes he should have been locked up for a long time ..

[ShazzieB]

24. I'm on the same page as you.

I was reading this article and thinking, "Good for that grandma." Then I got to the sentence and was like, "WTF?"

There are situations that don't have perfect solutions.This may be one of those situations, but I just don't know.....

[CloudWatcher]

25. 22.5 years for ... a plan

That's just insane. The kid was/is sick and needs help. Jail terms should be punishment and a deterrent, not just locking people up forever because they scare you.

It makes about as much sense as locking him up for life without the possibility of parole.

[canetoad]

28. It was more than a plan

He had bomb components and weapon/s.

[iemanja]

29. Yes, but as others have pointed out

The harsh sentence may act as a deterrent to other parents thinking of turning in their teenager.

[canetoad]

30. I actually agree with you

Sometimes I'm aghast at the severity of sentences in the US. It bears no semblance to 'corrections' but has a lot to do with bloodthirsty revenge.

In Aust. and UK a life sentence is generally 15 - 20 yrs, apart from particularly henious crimes. We have very few people imprisoned for actual life - they can be counted on (I think) both hands.

Something made this kid want to spread destruction; it's not a one-off situation, it happens a lot. Why?

[DallasNE]

27. Does The Punishment Fit The Crime?

There is no mention of whether he underwent a mental health examine. There was a time where an individual like this was found not responsible by reason of insanity (serious mental health issue). Rather than 22.5 years in prison where he would get no treatment and be a free man after his term was up he would get treatment and only released after an evaluation that he no longer presented a threat to himself and others. That may be less than 22.5 years or it may be more.

Was this a thing that Reagan ended?

The grandmother did the responsible, tough thing. Parents often look at these issues as a failure of parenting and so they go into denial.