A teen accused of allegedly plotting a Columbine-style massacre at Ardmore High School when classes open Wednesday planned a specific order to the killing, said a police official.

“First, he was going to kill the officer directing morning traffic—one of our own,” said Ardmore Police Sgt. Tracy Luna. “Next, he was going to kill the school resource officer, and then the rest.”

The 16-year-old has been charged with the felony of making a terrorist threat after police found death threats against the two officers, eight students and at least one teacher in a journal. And, according to Ardmore Police Chief William “Doc” Oliver, the teen also was charged at his Monday arraignment with possession of child pornography because of images discovered on a computer in his home.

Oliver said the judge set an Aug. 12 hearing date, at which time the judge will decide whether to charge the teen as an adult.

The plot came to light early last week when a student the suspect allegedly tried to recruit to help in the planned massacre informed his mother, who reported it to police, Oliver said.

Late Friday, armed with a search warrant from Limestone County juvenile authorities, Ardmore police and reserve officers converged on the home of a 16-year-old former Ardmore student and confiscated weapons, journals, a computer, violent video games and DVDs. However, police did not find any firearms.

“At his residence, we found swords, knives, graphic movies of violence such as ‘Saw,’ ‘Hitman,’ ‘Devil’s Reject,’” said Luna. “There were also pornographic magazines, and journals where he had written how he would kill and torture people, such as slashing their throats and watching them bleed to death, or impaling them with swords or spikes and cutting their faces off. He was pretty much a loner. He didn’t leave the house.”

Two years of threats

Luna said each journal entry was meticulously dated and went back to 2006. Oliver said that of the eight students targeted for killing, at least two had already graduated “maybe two years ago.” Oliver refused to divulge the name of the teacher, whom the suspect wrote of burning alive, in what he labeled as his “Book of HATE.”

The teen was transported to the Juvenile Detention Center in Tuscumbia.

“He answered our questions direct and to the point,” said Oliver. “He showed no remorse, not a bit. He’s just out there, really something else.”

Oliver said his office was familiar with the teen because police had answered a domestic violence complaint in April at the home he shares with his grandmother. The teen was subsequently charged with assaulting his grandmother, according to Ardmore police.

The police chief said that the grandmother, whom he said is a well-liked person in the community, “grew up with my wife.” He said she had gone “up north” and got the teen “two or three years ago” and formally adopted him and provided well for him.