Teen charged with planning to blow up Tampa school

Tampa police charged a 17-year-old expelled student from Freedom High School with planning to set off an explosive device at the school on the first day of classes next week.

Update at 5:44 p.m. ET: WTSP-TV reports that another Tampa-area student was arrested last August for planning a "mass destruction" attack on classmates at Leto High School.

Earlier this year, Austin Cook pleaded guilty to threatening to discharge a destructive device, a felony, according to Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies. His prison sentence will be suspended if he completes a maximum of two years' community service and eight years' probation.

WTSP is owned by USA TODAY's parent company, Gannett.

Update at 4:16 p.m. ET: Here's the Tampa Police Department's news release.

Update at 4 p.m. ET: Here's a St. Petersburg Times  photo of Jared Cano being led out of court this morning. (Note that the paper prohibits USA TODAY from publishing its photos.)

Update at 3:18 p.m. ET: Tampa police identified the suspect as Jared Michael Cano. He was charged with threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device; possession of bomb-making materials, cultivation of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana, Tampa Bay Online reports.

At a court hearing, Cano told the judge, "I don't know what to say," according to local media.

His arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 5.

Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor told a news conference that Cano had hoped "to cause more casualties than were suffered at Columbine." In that 1999 attack, 13 people died at the Colorado high school before the two teen gunmen killed themselves.

Cano's Facebook page includes a photo of him holding a machete, accompanied by a quote that "lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten."

Cano has a long criminal record as a juvenile and last year was charged with burglary over a break-in during which a firearm was stolen, Castor said. Previous charges included felony-level weapons offenses and grand larceny, and misdemeanor drug crimes. Some cases were dismissed or no action was taken, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

By Douglas Stanglin
USA TODAY

Update at 1:29 p.m. ET: On his Facebook page Tuesday morning, the suspect wrote, "i just did the dumbest thing ever!"

Original post: Tampa police arrested an expelled high school student and charged him with planning to blow up Freedom High School on the first day of class next Tuesday.

At a news conference today, Tampa Police Chief Janet Castor described the alleged plot as "a potential catastrophic event the likes of which this city has never seen."

The 17-year-old has been charged with threatening to discharge a destructive device, possession of bombmaking materials and possession of marijuana, police said in a news conference.

The teen, police say, was arrested Tuesday evening after a confidential informant tipped authorities, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The newspaper says the teen's mother allowed police to search his room where they found a journal and materials to make pipe bombs, including a fuel source, shrapnel, plastic tubing and timing and fusing devices.

The journal allegedly contained schematic drawings of rooms inside the school and what police called disturbing statements about his intent to kill, the Times reports.

The journal allegedly included minute-by-minute plans to carry out the plot, including a note that he wanted to kill more people than died in the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, Tampa Bay Online reports.

One of his favorite quotations: "Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten."

On Sunday evening, he posted this interesting item on his Facebook status page: "The weirdest thing happened today ... when my homie was trying to connect to a wireless network the connections list came up and one of them was called: FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN… It was weird..."