A Connecticut teenager caught lurking outside an elementary school with an airsoft rifle earlier this week intended to commit “suicide by cop,” police said.
The 17-year-old suspect, who has not been identified due to his age, showed up on Monday at Verplanck Elementary School in Manchester, Conn., carrying a duffle bag and what appeared to be a firearm. He mostly lingered by the playground, but witnesses told authorities he also pointed his weapon “into classroom windows, and at students and staff,” according to a press release issued Tuesday by the Manchester Police Department.
Verplanck, as a result, was placed under lockdown as a “precautionary measure,” police said.
When officers arrived on the scene just before 1:20 p.m., the teen was still holding his weapon, which was later determined to be a “very real looking” airsoft gun, Lt. Nick Reinert said.
“It was a facsimile, but the way they make the guns these days, especially toy guns, they look real,” he told WFSB. “So, it doesn’t alter our response.”
Surveillance video released by law enforcement shows the suspect at one point tap a glass door with the rifle and then aim it to inside the school, WFSB reported. In the same clip, a staff member can be seen opening the same door just moments earlier, and then escorting a group of students to safety.
Police said the teen pointed his weapon at 29 children and 10 adults on the school grounds before he was taken into custody.
In a subsequent interview with law enforcement, the suspect said he’d hoped to die in his confrontation with officers, though he did not say what caused him to surrender in the end. He’s facing 112 charges in connection with the incident, including first-degree threatening, 39 counts of reckless endangerment, 40 counts of second-degree breach of peace, possession of a weapon on school grounds, carrying a dangerous weapon, illegal use of a facsimile firearm, and 29 counts of risk of injury.
