Struthers, OH – A city teen is in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center after reports said he threatened to kill his father and, after that, kill as many people as possible.
The 15-year-old was booked into the JJC Friday on charges of making terroristic threats, domestic violence, inducing panic and possessing criminal tools.
The teen was arraigned on Wednesday in Mahoning County Juvenile Court and is being held in detention. He will have a preliminary hearing sometime within the next 10 to 14 days.
The charges were filed after an investigation that began June 17 when police were tipped off by the FBI that the teen was on a live chat on the internet threatening to kill his father.
Police went to the home and found the teen on the porch, reports said. He went back inside the home but when ordered to come back out, he did so and was handcuffed, reports said. When the teen was taken into custody, he had four loaded magazines for handguns in his pockets, reports said.
The boy’s father was also at home at the time, reports said. The FBI told police the teen had threatened to kill his father while the father was sleeping, reports said.
The teen was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for observation and police searched the home and found two loaded handguns along with several loaded magazines. Reports said there were over 100 rounds of ammunition and the handguns were emblazoned with racist and Nazi slogans, including a swastika.
The teen told police he was distraught over the recent death of his mother before he was taken to the hospital, reports said, and he did not like his father.
Police took the boy’s phone and got a search warrant to look at it, reports said. Inside the phone, investigators found Nazi and antisemitic materials as well as a manifesto. Also on the phone was a video the teen made where he said he planned to kill his father, then shoot as many Black people as he could while driving to a synagogue, where he was going to carry out a mass shooting.
On June 20, the teen was transferred to an out-of-town mental health facility. That same day, the teen’s father gave investigators a journal kept by the teen that had antisemitic sayings as well as phrases and threats toward people who are Black, Jewish or gay, and others. Also on the phone was an app commonly used by Nazi sympathizers that the teen used to participate in several forums, reports said.
The teen was taken into custody by police after he was discharged from the mental health facility on Friday.
