[P]olice say they thwarted a plot involving two 14-year-old Middlebury Union Middle School students to carry out a shooting this week on the school’s campus.
Dennis Wygmans, the Addison County state’s attorney, said Tuesday evening that the investigation is ongoing and if any charges are filed, they “most likely” would be brought in juvenile court.
“We believe there is no longer a threat, but folks should remain vigilant,” the prosecutor added. “If they do learn of anything, they should contact Middlebury Police.”
Because the case involves juveniles, authorities say they are not releasing the names of the students involved.
The threat comes a little less than a year after a former student at Fair Haven Union High School student in February allegedly plotted to shoot up that Rutland County school, but a friend of his tipped off police who took 18-year-old Jack Sawyer into custody.
In the Middlebury case, police say, it was a student, who they did not identify, who first alerted authorities after overhearing details of the plot.
The Middlebury Police Department, the Addison County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the school supervisory union Superintendent Peter Burrows issued a joint statement on the Middlebury case Tuesday.
According to that statement, the police department was notified around 10 a.m. Saturday by MUMS Principal Kristin Francoeur that a student overheard “other students talking about shooting up the school.”
Police said they interviewed several students as they began to unravel the plot involving the two 14-year-old students.
One of the 14-year-olds said he was going to obtain firearms and go to the school on Tuesday, Dec. 18, according to police. At noon that day, police said, that student was planning to shoot a specific student, “one in which he had problems with, and anyone else.”
“The plans to carry out this were detailed and specific,” police wrote. “A second student had told him he could provide firearms from a relative.”
One of those 14-year-old students was taken to Porter Medical Center in Middlebury for psychiatric counseling and follow-up treatment and is in the custody of the state Department for Children and Families, the release stated.
Authorities obtained an “extreme risk protection order” under a law that went into effect earlier this year and seized firearms from the residence of a relative of the other student. That relative, according to the statement issued Tuesday, was not aware of or involved in the students’ plan.
The firearms at that relative’s home had all been “encased and secured in safes,” the release stated.
An extreme risk protection order is obtained through a civil process approved by a judge, and can run up to six months.
The Legislature approved and Gov. Phil Scott signed the measure allowing for the issuing of such extreme risk protection orders, as well as other gun reform measures, following the Sawyer case in Fair Haven earlier this year.
Middlebury police late Tuesday afternoon referred all questions regarding the incident to the release it posted on its Facebook page.
However, Middlebury Police Chief Thomas Hanley spoke with the Addison Independent, a weekly newspaper that covers Addison County, which first reported the story.
The newspaper reported that police are “withholding the names of the two suspects because they are both juveniles. They are also not disclosing the names of the alleged target(s) in this case, nor the identity of a heroic student who tipped off adults about the alleged shooting plot.”
The newspaper reported that Hanley said, “There may be some other charges down the road, but right now it’s the treatment issues we’re dealing with.” The police chief also said, “It was between a couple of kids. It may have been some bullying or that kind of stuff. We’re still trying to pull (the investigation) together. There have been a lot of interviews and statements given.”
The Addison Independent reported that it also had obtained an email from Burrows, the school superintendent, sent to the MUMS community.
“We learned over the weekend that a group of middle school students had discussed and made threats of violence involving Middlebury Union Middle School,” the email stated, according to the newspaper.
“We cannot identify the students because of federal privacy laws,” Burrows wrote. “However, I can assure you that safety is our highest priority. We have worked collaboratively with law enforcement, and MUMS has security procedures in place to protect our students. Further, we will not permit the students who made the threats to return to the middle school until the students are found to be safe by someone with expertise in making those assessments.”
The seventh- and eighth-grade MUMS serves the Addison County towns of Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge.
