The teenage gunman accused of killing one classmate and wounding three others at their Washington high school last week kept a manifesto at home and marked students’ faces with Xs in his yearbook, according to police.
Caleb Sharpe, 15, is awaiting his first court date after being taken into custody shortly after the shooting at Freeman High School in Rockford, Washington, at 10am last Wednesday.
Police say he shot Sam Strahan, 15, in the chest and head, killing him coldly before opening fire on Emma Nees, Gracie Jensen and Jordyn Goldsmith who all survived despite being injured.
In court documents released this week, police who searched Sharpe’s family home described finding a ‘manifesto’ in his bedroom which contained a ‘list of dad’s ammo’.
Police say Caleb Sharpe (above last Wednesday being taken into a juvenile center) kept a ‘manifesto’ at home and had marked his high school yearbook with Xs on the faces of students he wanted to kill
It was in a binder in front of a dresser in the boy’s room, they said.
In the second drawer of his dresser was a yearbook in which Sharpe had marked the faces of students with an ‘X = kill’. Police will not reveal whether any of the students who were hurt or killed had their faces marked in the yearbook.
They also discovered an Assassins Creed notebook and a stack of papers and notes with the title ‘My first novel book’.
What was described as a ‘practice Molotov cocktail’ was also found under a stack of clothes in his closet, they said.
Elsewhere in the home, they found 34 boxes of .223-caliber ammunition on top of a safe.
Police say it was where the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and handgun Sharpe used were being kept.
They believe they belong to his father and that he knew the combination to the safe.
On Wednesday, authorities say he brought the weapons to school in a black duffel bag.
Sam Strahan, 15, died after being shot in the head and chest. Sharpe told police he approached him and said: ‘I always knew you’d shoot up the school’ seconds beforehand
Officers said they found a practice Molotov cocktail in Sharpe’s closet and a stack of notes and papers in a dresser drawer which he’d titled ‘My first novel book’
First, they say he pulled the AR-15 out, pointing it towards students in a second floor hallway, but it jammed.
In interviews, Sharpe said this was when Strahan approached him and taunted him, allegedly telling him: ‘I always knew you were going to shoot up the school.
‘You know this is going to get you in trouble.’
Sharpe is then accused of pulling out a handgun from his waistband and shooting Strahan in the chest and face.
He told police he was bullied by the 15-year-old sophomore but that he wasn’t necessarily a target.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Sharpe was driven by bullying but that he was ‘enamored of the school shooting culture’.
His parents issued a statement last week to say they were ‘devastated’ by the events and asked for privacy.
A distraught student is pictured after evacuating the high school last Wednesday after the shooting
Three other girls were injured in the shooting but survived. Two have since been released from the hospital
‘The Sharpe family wishes to offer their deepest condolences and sympathies to the entire Freeman community.
Wednesday, the day of the shooting was Sharpe’s first day back after being suspended for sending threatening, violent notes around
‘They too as a family are devastated,’ lawyer Bevan Maxey said.
Sharpe was initially placed in Spokane Juvenile Detention Center and was expected to make his first court appearance in juvenile court last Thursday but the hearing was cancelled.
It suggests that prosecutors are weighing up whether to try him as an adult. A new appearance has not yet been scheduled at any court in Spokane.
Last Wednesday, the day of the shooting, was his first day back at school after being suspended for passing around threatening notes.
Staff at Freeman High School will not reveal exactly what was in the note which prompted his suspension but they said they followed protocol, only allowing him back after being satisfied that he was not a risk.
Students have told how in the days before the shooting, Sharpe had been passing around notes threatening to ‘do something stupid which could get him killed.’
One said he’d become obsessed with school shooting documentaries.