The 19-year-old man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school and injuring one has revealed chilling details of the crime in a jailhouse interview.
‘I prepared to go and scare people,’ Sky Bouche recalled of the attack on Friday morning at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida, in a televised interview from behind bars with KTVU.
‘Put my shotgun in my guitar case, took two pills of Phenibut, put my tactical vest in my backpack and went to Forest,’ Bouche said. Phenibut is an anti-anxiety medication which is banned in the US but obtainable online.
When asked why he did it, Bouche replied: ‘It’s just built up since I was a young child. Just not around good things, a lot of mental illness, some violence, mostly neglect.’
‘I don’t know, it just wasn’t a good day,’ he said.
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Sky Bouche, 19, above, made his first court appearance Saturday at Marion County Jail
Bouche said that when he entered the school a girl walked by him, but he hesitated in pulling out the gun. ‘I just didn’t want to shoot or kill people, because at that point the adrenaline and the excitement just kind of faded immediately.’
Instead, he said fired through a door and dropped the gun, thinking he hadn’t hit anyone. But a 17-year-old boy on the other side of the door was struck in the ankle.
‘I could have pumped the shotgun. I didn’t, I just dropped it,’ Bouche said. Addressing the injured student he added, ‘There’s nothing I can say, I can say sorry all I want, but he can think what he wants.’
‘This is what I wanted, was to be away from everyone else, so I’m not hurting anyone else,’ he said, sitting stony faced in jailhouse stripes. ‘That was my primary goal. Cause I knew if I didn’t , you know, snap now, it would have been later and it would’ve been a hundred times worse.’
Bouche was denied bail at his first court appearance on Saturday.
Judge Willard Pope at Marion County Jail told Bouche he would be held without bond due nature of the charges that span terrorism, aggravated assault with a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and armed trespass on school property.
Bouche, above, was told he would be held without bond due nature of the serious charges
His charges span terrorism, aggravated assault with a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and armed trespass on school property. Pictured right signing a document in handcuffs
Bouche is on suicide watch and under close surveillance at Marion County Jail in Florida
Bouche is on suicide watch at the jail and is under close surveillance, according to The Ocala Star-Banner.
His next court date was set for May 22.
Bouche entered Forest High School in Ocala, Florida armed with a shotgun on Friday, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine massacre, and the very same day students across the nation participated in a walkout to protest gun violence.
Bouche shot at a locked door where pellets ricocheted off the door and wounded a 17-year-old male student.
He was taken down by a school resource officer and arrested, just three minutes after he opened fire.
A detective’s report revealed that Bouche had a 17 ½ inch shotgun concealed in a guitar case that he brought into school.
After entering he went to the bathroom, put on a tactical vest and gloves, then walked into the hallway where he shot the door.
He dropped the gun and surrendered to one of his former teachers Kelly McManis-Panasuk, according to WSVN.
Deputy James Long, a resource officer for Forest High School in Oscala, has been hailed a hero after he arrested suspected shooter Sky Bouche three minutes after he opened fire
Bouche was taken away from the school in a hazmat suit to preserve the evidence on his body
The shooting took place at Forest High School (pictured) in Ocala, Florida, on Friday morning. It was the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado
‘His hands were up and he said he wanted to be arrested … ‘I am mentally ill,” McManis-Panasuk quoted him saying.
She asked if he shot the gun and where.
‘I shot a door. I didn’t think it (the gun) would work,’ he responded.
The two spoke until school resource officer Deputy Jim Long and principal Brent Carson arrived and took the troubled teenager into custody.
Speaking to detectives, Bouche said the motive was to ‘inflict fear in students, but he did not intend to kill anyone.’
He told police that he purchased the shotgun in a private sale a week after the Parkland shooting and that there was no paperwork or background check for the transaction as it was a private sale.
Friday morning he said he felt ‘an adrenaline rush’ to carry out the shooting.
He said the excitement wore off and he was unable to carry out his plan.
In this April 20, 2018, photo by Jake Mailhiot, desks, chairs and filing cabinets are used to barricade a classroom door during the shooting that injured one on Friday morning
Hands up! Students were told to put their hands up as police swept through classrooms
The suspected gunman did not reveal a motive for the shooting that sent a 17-year-old male to the hospital
Emotions ran high as students walked hand-in-hand outside their school on Friday to be united with parents and teachers who were waiting
Students and teachers are pictured hugging in front of Forest High School after Friday morning’s shooting
Bouche apologized as he was led away in handcuffs.
‘I didn’t shoot anyone,’ he said to reporters.
‘I just shot through the door. Sorry, it doesn’t matter anyway,’ he told reporters on his way to a patrol car.
Bouche had been planning a shooting for some time.
He told detectives he wanted to do it on Friday the 13th but changed his mind.
He added he wanted to do a church shooting at first but decided to go with a school shooting as it ‘creates more attention’.
He added that he was prompted to complete Friday’s shooting after suffering nightmares.
He said wanted to go to jail as he could ‘potentially conduct another shooting in the future’ the detective report stated.
Speaking with the The Ocala Star-Banner he revealed that he once wanted to join the Marines but could not as he was ‘Baker Acted when I was 14’ meaning he was committed for a mental health evaluation at the age of 14.