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Rockville teen Alex Ye found guilty of planning school shooting
A Montgomery County judge on Wednesday found an 18-year-old guilty of threatening to commit an act of mass violence. Police charged Andrea Ye, who went by Alex, earlier this year after assessing he made threats to commit shootings at Wooten High School and Lakewood Elementary.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - A Montgomery County judge on Wednesday found an 18-year-old guilty of threatening to commit an act of mass violence.
Andrea Ye, who went by Alex, was arrested on April 16 after police determined that he made threats to commit shootings at Wooten High School and Lakewood Elementary.
The central piece of evidence in this case was a 129-page manifesto Ye had written that outlined plans to commit mass shootings at schools.
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Ye’s defense team argued in trial that this was a work of fiction, protected by the First Amendment but the Montgomery County State’s Attorney argued that this was not protected speech and was a genuine threat.
The judge agreed with the State's Attorney.
Andrea Ye, of Rockville, whose preferred name is Alex Ye, was arrested on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, by the Montgomery County Police Department and has been charged in connection with plans to commit a school shooting.
The state had evidence of multiple conversations Ye had with people online in which he praised school shooters, researched showed concern that the people he was talking to were going to report him and while the names were changed in this supposed manifesto, the judge said she felt the character in the book was an account of Ye’s.
The judge laid out the statute in Maryland which says a reasonable person must feel there’s a threat given the broader context. She said the online friend who Ye shared the writing with was that reasonable person because they read a few pages and immediately reported the writing to police.
"The Montgomery County Police Behavior Assessment Unit obtained records from multiple social media platforms, including Instagram and Discord, and reviewed thousands of pages of records that revealed Ye’s consistent obsession with school shootings and school shooters,'' the State's Attorney's Office said in a press release. "It was those records that provided the context to the written manifesto that led to the judge finding that this was a true threat."
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Ye was also hospitalized in December 2022 after making statements to a counselor at Wootton High School about wanting to "shoot up" his school, according to the State's Attorney's Office.
There was no comment from Ye’s attorney immediately after the hearing but she indicated we may hear something from her by the end of the day.
State’s Attorney John McCarthy said this was a serious and troubling case and believes that lives were saved, in particular because of Ye’s peer who read the first few pages of this manifesto and immediately reported it to police.
"We are particularly thankful that this manifesto is similar we’ve seen before," McCarthy said.
In a statement sent to FOX 5, Ye's defense team said, "We are deeply disheartened by the guilty verdict in this case. Mr. Ye maintains he did not threaten to commit a crime of mass violence and that he is innocent. Throughout this challenging process, Mr. Ye has consistently maintained that his intent was solely to share a fictional book he authored. After enduring an extended period of pretrial incarceration for a misdemeanor charge, Mr. Ye and his family are eager for his return home to begin the next chapter of healing and restoration."
Ye will remain in custody until the sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for Feb. 28, and in the meantime, will also undergo evaluations. He faces a maximum of ten years in prison.