Cops: Plot went beyond school:
This is definitely a new one on me. It seems that the 15-year-old accused in the plot to attack Connetquot High School referred to himself as Dante and referred to Michael McDonnough as Randal. If those names don’t mean anything to you they’re the main characters in the movie Clerks. They’re probably referring to Clerks II though since that movie takes place at a fast food restaurant. Except Dante and Randal never intentionally plotted to kill somebody.
Anyway, more details are emerging including Michael McDonnough’s role in the plot.
One of the teens — Michael McDonough, 17, of Holbrook — said that at a June 30 sleepover, he and his 15-year-old friend made a video talking about using pipe bombs to destroy the McDonald’s on Veterans Highway, according to McDonough’s statement. At about midnight, they headed to the restaurant carrying three eggs, which they threw at the building as a “rehearsal” for what would happen next, he told the Suffolk detective.
In a written waiver of rights that accompanies each statement, the teens declined legal counsel before providing the statements last Tuesday to the detective, who wrote down their accounts. The mother of the 15-year-old was present when he gave his account.
The younger of the two, a 15-year-old Connetquot High School student whom police would not identify because he is charged as a juvenile, said he “had angry thoughts about killing people at Connetquot High School because I don’t feel they’ve done right by me.” People taunted him for living in a trailer park, the statement said.
The 15-year-old said he shared his plan to attack McDonald’s with McDonough, but said he didn’t remember telling his friend about the school plot: “I mention killing people and shooting up the school quite a bit in my journal, but I don’t remember saying it to Mike.”
In McDonough’s statement, he says that depression and suicidal thoughts led him to go along with the 15-year-old. He said the two hatched the plot against Connetquot High in February while they were on a school break.
McDonough told the detective he “didn’t care where life was going to leave me next. I told [the 15-year-old] that I was on board and would help him shoot up the Connetquot High School.” He said the 15-year-old talked about “killing his whole school, hundreds of people.”
And we’re getting more proof of the 15-year-old’s mutancy…
The two aimed for a date for the school attack — calling it J-Day, short for judgment day — April 20, 2008, the ninth anniversary of the Columbine High School killings. The younger teen seemed to model his plan after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who carried out the Colorado attack, McDonough said.
Now let’s give the excuses…
The younger of the two, a 15-year-old Connetquot High School student whom police would not identify because he is charged as a juvenile, said he “had angry thoughts about killing people at Connetquot High School because I don’t feel they’ve done right by me.” People taunted him for living in a trailer park, the statement said.
The 15-year-old said he shared his plan to attack McDonald’s with McDonough, but said he didn’t remember telling his friend about the school plot: “I mention killing people and shooting up the school quite a bit in my journal, but I don’t remember saying it to Mike.”
In McDonough’s statement, he says that depression and suicidal thoughts led him to go along with the 15-year-old. He said the two hatched the plot against Connetquot High in February while they were on a school break.
McDonough told the detective he “didn’t care where life was going to leave me next. I told [the 15-year-old] that I was on board and would help him shoot up the Connetquot High School.” He said the 15-year-old talked about “killing his whole school, hundreds of people.”
So we have depression and a trailer park as excuses. As time goes by the excuses keep getting more pathetic. I’ve seen pictures of the trailer park. In Long Island that might be a trailer park but in the rest of the country it’s more like a housing development. Come to North Carolina sometime and I’ll show you some scary trailer parks. As far as the depression goes I have two words. Get help. It really isn’t that bad. But I’m sure we’ll hear the excuse that he was either on or wasn’t on meds. You really can’t go wrong, either way, these days.
Here is a copy of the statements they gave to police.