SandyMaloneGermantown, MD – Police found an AR-15 rifle, handguns, tactical vests, inert grenades, and a possible detonation device at the Germantown home of a Clarksburg High School student who was arrested for bringing a handgun to school on Feb. 15.
Assistant State’s Attorney Frank Lazzaro said Alwin Chen, 18, had compiled a “list of grievances against students in the school,” and termed it “possibly a motive for why he was going to use the gun,” The Washington Post reported.
On Thursday, the day after a gunman murdered 17 students and faculty at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Chen was caught carrying a handgun at his Montgomery County High School.
He gave police two different excuses for having the weapon, The Washington Post reported.
First, he told police he’d planned to go target shooting after school.
He “then told the police he had brought the gun to school for protection because students at the school had been harassing him and bullying him,” Lazzaro said.
Chen was arrested and charged with possession of a handgun, possession of a firearm by a person under 21 years old, and possession of a firearm on school property after the incident, WJLA reported.
On Tuesday, Montgomery District Judge John Moffett ordered Chen held without bond.
The defense argued that Chen has no history of mental health problems and has cooperated with authorities.
Attorney David Felsen said the additional weapons found were not found in Chen’s bedroom, The Washington Post reported.
“They were found in someone else’s room,” Felsen said. “Someone who is legally authorized to have all these things.”
He argued that Chen was an honor student who already had two college offers.
“This is a young man who has desires of helping people, in terms of being a police officer or being in the military,” Felsen said.
But high school administrators don’t see anything positive.
“This illegal and dangerous behavior will not be tolerated in our school community,” Clarksburg High School principal Edward Owusu wrote in a letter that was sent home to parents. “Weapons of any type are not permitted on or near school property. Any student caught with a weapon will be referred to law enforcement and punished accordingly.”