Florida police foil bomb plot at Tampa school

TAMPA, Fla., (Reuters) – Florida police today  said they had thwarted a plot by a 17-year-old to attack his  former school in Tampa after arresting him and discovering  bomb-making material at his home.
“We were probably able to thwart a potentially catastrophic  event the likes of which the city of Tampa has not seen and  hopefully never will,” Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor told a  news conference.
Police named the suspect, who was detained and charged on  Tuesday, as 17-year-old Jared Cano and said his target was the  Freedom High School in Hillsborough County.
Castor said Cano, who had been expelled from the school,  had hoped “to cause more casualties than were suffered at  Columbine” in his attack.
In April 1999, two students at the Columbine High School in  Colorado killed 12 students and one teacher in one of the  deadliest school massacres in U.S. history.
Castor said Tampa police, acting on a tip from an  informant, learned that Cano, who had been arrested in the past  for carrying a concealed weapon, had been planning his attack  to take place on the first day of class next week.
Evidence found in a search of his home included a journal  with drawings of rooms inside the school and statements  apparently indicating his intention to carry out a deadly  attack, authorities said.
Police also found fuel sources, shrapnel, plastic tubing  and timing and fusing devices, Castro said.
“He was charged yesterday with threatening to throw,  project, place or discharge a destructive device, possession of  bomb-making materials and also cultivation of marijuana in his  room, his house,” she said.