By Dan Morse and Aaron C. Davis | Washington Post
Yonatan Getachew, 18, was arrested Tuesday, April 28. Charges against him include attempted first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree arson.
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WASHINGTON DC — Two Montgomery County teenagers have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit murder in an alleged plot to kill the principal at their White Oak high school in Maryland with a nail-filled bomb and then trigger a major explosion inside the school, authorities said yesterday.
The Springbrook High School students — juniors ages 18 and 17 — are suspected of having set three fires at the school, including one Tuesday before the discovery of the plot that led to their arrests, police said.
According to police, the students planned “in the near future” to throw the bomb into the principal’s office, and then puncture a gas pipe in the school’s auditorium and use an incendiary device to set off an explosion.
Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said investigators think the students “really had an intention of doing this.”
“They were surely doing things that made one believe they were going to try,” he said.
Over the past month, the students “constructed and experimented with several different incendiary devices,” said Lt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman. They had also attempted to puncture pipes in the boys’ locker room to determine whether they were gas lines, he said.
Police identified the teens as Yonata Getachew, 18, of the 11500 block of Sutherland Hill Way in White Oak (a native of Ethiopia) and Anthony N. Torrence, 17, of the 13500 block of Greencastle Ridge Terrace in the Burtonsville area. Torrence has been charged as an adult.
Each is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree arson and other offenses. They are scheduled to appear in court for bond hearings today.
Acting on search warrants obtained Tuesday night, investigators searched both students’ homes. They found flammable liquids and materials used to make “chemical reaction bombs,” police said in a statement. They also found “notes and plans written by Getachew and Torrence about preparations and the physical design of the school building.”
Other students at Springbrook, just north of Silver Spring, said in interviews that Getachew and Torrence kept a low profile.
“He’s a quiet boy,” senior Jared Mohammed, 18, said of Torrence.
Another 18-year-old senior, Yomi Kolawole, said of Torrence, “I didn’t think he would do something like this.”
In a letter to parents, Principal Michael Durso described the situation as serious.
“We learned yesterday of plans being made that could have resulted in damage to the building as well as potential harm to students and staff,” he wrote.
Officials said they knew of no motive.
“There doesn’t seem to be any precipitating event,” said Jerry D. Weast, the county’s school superintendent. “That is one of the mysteries that we want to solve.”
He praised a police officer assigned to the school for knowing one of the suspects well enough that the student ultimately confided in him. “It’s truly about relationships,” Weast said.
The alleged plans came to light Tuesday when the two were stopped while leaving the school, allegedly after setting a fire in a hallway near an ROTC room. Torrence gave the school police officer extensive information about the plans, police said.
According to police, Torrence said the two planned to beat a female guidance counselor with a bag containing rocks and nails. They also planned to maximize harm from a fire they would start by stuffing paper into air vents and disabling the school’s sprinkler system, Torrence allegedly said.
In an interview, Torrence’s mother said her son has a learning disorder and was manipulated by Getachew into doing things he would not have done otherwise.
“He’s a sheltered child,” Andrea Torrence, 48, said of her son. “He has his problems when it comes to understanding things, but he’s never been in any trouble before in his life.”
No one answered the door yesterday at the red-brick townhouse in White Oak where Getachew lives.
Andrea Torrence said her son told her that Getachew was teaching him to shoplift and had forced him to type a threatening letter to a school staff member. At the school Tuesday, she said, Getachew showed her son how to spray lighter fluid onto the ceiling. At one point, she said, Getachew set fire to lighter fluid on the floor, and her son stomped the fire out.
In the past month, the two students twice set fires in bathrooms at the school, police said.
About 2 a.m. yesterday, Andrea Torrence said, seven or eight officers in SWAT gear arrived at her two-bedroom apartment. Police searched her son’s room and took his computer, cellphone and a letter addressed to him from a hobby store, Torrence said.
At the school yesterday, several students spoke highly of Durso, the principal, and Camille Basoco, the guidance counselor.
“The targets are very surprising . . . seeing as though Ms. Basoco is known for her kindness and personality, as well as Mr. Durso,” said junior Ebony Turner, 16.
(Staff writer Daniel de Vise and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.)