Police have arrested a Maryland teenager for planning a school shooting. Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) said 18-year-old Alex Ye wrote a 129—page document, which he referred to as his “memoir,” containing detailed plans on how to carry out multiple murders and a declaration that an elementary school would be preferable because this would make him famous.
The document came to light when federal authorities discovered an Instagram conversation between Ye and an unnamed individual who reportedly knew him from an outpatient psychiatric facility. The FBI informed MCPD, and a joint investigation was launched.
Ye claimed that his story was fictional, but law enforcement agencies said he bought a Bebe gun on Amazon and intended to die via “suicide by cop.” After executing a search warrant, police found that the teenager had sought out weapons online, including assault rifles, and had researched murder and suicide.
Several students at Thomas S. Wootton High School, where Ye attended until 2022, said they were terrified by the news and the realization that they could have fallen victim to the 18-year-old’s plans. “I think it’s a very scary thing to happen, knowing we went to school with this person,” one student said.
Alex Ye had not attended school since the fall of 2022 and was taking classes online. He was hospitalized late that year for issuing violent threats to classmates and for suicidal ideation. In 2023, he spent five months at the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Unit for “homicidal ideation.”
A school counselor told the FBI that Ye frequently expressed a desire to hurt other people and would smile while doing so. Furthermore, he once told the counselor that he dreamed of returning to his elementary school with a gun and opening fire.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) would not discuss Ye in detail with reporters but did confirm it is working closely with investigators and shares their commitment to “address potential threats with due process before they materialize.”
