Police: Keizer teens linked to bomb-making plot

Police: Keizer teens linked to bomb-making plot

This was one of more than a dozen bottles seized in an investigation into a bomb-making plot involving some McNary High School students.

By KATU Web Staff

KEIZER, Ore. - Police have arrested five teenagers in connection with a bomb-making plot that involved chemicals stolen during a burglary at McNary High School early Saturday.

Police charged four 15-year-old boys and a 13-year-old boy, all from Keizer, in connection with the plot. Their names were not immediately released.

Keizer police said they learned of the plot after an officer stopped two teens walking along a Keizer road about 4:30 a.m. Saturday after believing they might be violating curfew laws. The officer discovered the pair were carrying various chemicals in their backpacks and eventually tied them to a burglary at McNary High earlier that morning, police said.

As police continued to investigate, they linked more people to the burglary - three who acted as lookouts and two who actually broke into the high school and stole a variety of chemicals near the science classrooms.

Police were later able to track down all five teens and arrest them.

Inside a tent that all five were sleeping in, police said they found more stolen chemicals as well as a computer that had been stolen in a separate burglary a day earlier at Claggett Creek Middle School in Keizer.

According to police, some journal entries linked to at least one of the suspects described a planned bomb threat at the high school during the upcoming school year.

"Do this year when break needed or just wanted," one of the entries said.

However, police said they were "concerned" the teens meant to do more than just make a bomb threat.

Capt. Jeffrey Kuhns, a Keizer police spokesman, said he did not know if the plot involved hurting anyone. Investigators found no hit list nor any scheduled date for an attack.

Police on Saturday said they were also searching for a sixth suspect in the case.

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