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Text Of Freedom High School Police Reports

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TBO.com Staff Report

Published: September 7, 2007

This is a copy of the police reports compiled in the investigation into threats made by Freedom High School students.

Names of students, except 16-year-old Mark Stapleton and 17-year-old John Doan have been redacted by the Tribune A 15-year-old also charged in this incident is not being named because of his age.

A student at Freedom High School made threats to bring a gun to school while talking with another student in class. He threatened to shoot specific students, and then to kill himself.
Related text page(s)
Document: INITIAL REPORT
Author: 44979 - IVERSEN, KATIE
Related date/time: Sep-05-2007

Ofc. J. Thomas and I responded to XXXXX at the request of Cpl. C. Milillo. The residence is within the limits of Hillsborough County and outside the city limits. Cpl. Milillo requested that I conduct an interview with a female juvenile named XXXXX, who is a student of Freedom High School. He advised me that the investigation involved XXXXX hearing a male student making threats to bring a gun to school.

Upon arrival, I met with Deputy Clark, who had been dispatched by the sheriff's office to make contact with XXXXX and to await arrival of Tampa Police. He provided me with the sheriff's office report number of 07 536594, and advised me that he would be writing an Assist Other Jurisdiction report of the incident. He also advised me that he only spoke with XXXX briefly and did not get into detail. He then left the scene.

I met with XXXXX and her mother inside their home. I had XXXXX swear and affirm that her statements were true prior to conducting the interview. XXXXX's mother was present for the entire interview. I then had XXXXX sign the sworn statement acknowledgement form in the presence of her mother. XXXXX's mother advised me that XXXXX had given her the same information that she had given me, and had nothing to add to her statement. She also advised me that she spoke with Ofc. Smith at the Tampa Police District II office, and that he had explained to her that an anonymous call had been placed to a Hillsborough County 911 operator regarding the same incident.

He also provided her with Mark's last name, as she and her daughter could not recall it.

I contacted Lt. S. Courtoy and updated him on the situation. He provided me with Mark's correct last name, date of birth and address, as provided to him through the information obtained from the anonymous 911 caller. I contacted XXXXX's mother by phone as she had requested to update her on the situation, as she was concerned about her daughter attending school the following day. I assured her that her daughter would be safe and that the police department would handle it immediately.

I responded to Freedom High School at the request of Sgt Preyer to assist in the investigation of a possible weapon being brought to the school.

Upon arrival I was directed to and stood by with the listed subject briefly. The defendant stated that a friend of his had talked about bring a gun to school to shoot some students and a teacher. I then assisted with several other units in conducting a check of the high school grounds. I checked several trash cans in the school and several bathrooms. We also checked the baseball field stands and several portable school rooms.

Nothing was located. I then returned to the School Resource Officer's room where the suspect was. I then had him complete a consent to interview form and a sworn statement form. He was then interviewed. During the course of the interview I met with Ofc. Touchton and Ofc. Smith to compare the stories that we were being given by the three subjects. Sgt. Preyer was kept informed of our findings as they developed. I then had to re-question the defendant several times to get a complete story based on information the other defendants were saying. This defendant did admit to planning to light the science lab on fire by opening the natural gas valves and creating a sparke or flame. He also had discussed plans to injure and or harm other people in the school with the co-defendants. Based on this the defendant was asked to write a statement, which he did. The defendant and co-defendants were arrested. I then transported the three subjects to the JAC center and released into their custody.

On the listed date members of SAC Squad 230 received information from Sgt. J Preyer of potential threat of a shooting at Freedom High School. The subject Mark Stapleton had allegedly made statements that he would shoot a student named XXXXX and then shoot himself.
Sgt J Preyer and members of SAC Squad 230 conducted surveillance at the Stapletons' listed residence and stopped Mark Stapleton as he left for school. Mark Stapleton was found to be unarmed and was transported to Freedom High School where he was interviewed.

Christina Stapleton (Marks' mother) was notified and appeared on scene shortly after he was stopped. Christina advised she does not own a gun and does not believe Mark owns a real gun (she is aware of him owning BB guns).

Christina gave verbal and written consent to a search of her home for a possible gun. Cpl C Blount, Ofc R Rivera and I searched Mark Stapletons' room while Christina was present and located three BB guns in his room.

Christina advised of another BB gun in her room which we visibly observed Ofc R Rivera placed Christinas' written consent form into TPD property.

Refer to other officers supplement for further information regarding their involvement in this case.

When logging on this morning I saw that there were undercover units on an operation at XXXXXX and I was briefed by Sgt. Preyer about it. I set up a location inside the subdivision down the road from the site where Mark Stapleton was apprehended coming out of his home. I then was requested to go to Freedom High School to help out there. Once there I was directed to search the outlying areas, particularly to the north where it was wooded, to look for anything possible concealed weaponry. I walked through the conservation from the northeast to the northwest and all around the ball fields but found nothing.

Going inside the school, I took over watching def XXXXX who was being detained inside a coach's office. After being apprised of the details of the case by others I then spoke to XXXXX in the presence of the coach and his brother XXXX. I read him Miranda which he understood and then I took his statement, which took some time because the def was vague and roundabout, often muttering and burying his had in his arms on the desk.

I relayed the gathered information to Sgt. Preyer and Captain Wolff and was in turn briefed by the other officers. The MySpace information was given to the captain who in turn gave it to CIB.

XXXXX wrote nearly 3 pages of a statement, in which he wrote that the three of them discussed shooting people at the school and how John said that he would target Mrs. Woody. They discussed bombing the school and maybe blowing up the science lab with the gas. At the end of his statement he wrote that around 2215 hrs he "spoke" with John via an internet game and was told that Mark had stabbed himself in the cheek and that there had been lots of blood.

The def was handcuffed without trouble and turned over to Ofc. Cravens who transported all three defendants to the JAC. I later placed the statement into evidence at D2.

XXXX is fifteen years old and is in the 10th grade at Freedom High School.

She has known Mark Stapleton since XXX grade, when they both went to XXXXXX Middle School. She doesn't consider him a close friend, just an acquaintance. She wasn't sure of his last name until her mother asked if it was Stapleton. She has XXXX class with him this year, and sometimes they talk during class. They have XXXX class together this year. At the beginning of the school year, Mark told her that he was dating a girl named XXXXX that also goes to their school. She knows XXXXX because she had a class with her last year, and Mark had told her that he liked XXXXX last year. She doesn't know XXXXX's last name.

She thinks of Mark as a "weird" kid, sometimes appearing to be depressed.

He will usually only talk to people that he knows. She isn't sure if he showers every day because he seems to be a little dirty, and his hair is usually messy. She advised that he dressed "goth" last year, wearing a lot of black clothes, AC/DC shirts, etc. This year, however, he has been dressing "normally", wearing just jeans and t-shirts, etc. Mark will often do strange things during class that draw attention to himself. She could think of only one example of this involving a mini flashlight that Mark carries. One day he repeatedly flashed the flashlight in his eyes during class, causing the other students to look at him.

Mark will often explain away his behavior to her and other students by saying "I'm high". She recalls him saying this several times so far this year. She doesn't know which drug Mark is referring to when he says he is high.

Yesterday, she and Mark were talking, and she asked him what he did over the weekend. His answer was "I got high". He told her that he took a bunch of pills, and showed her a picture on his cell phone. In the picture, she could see several red pills (approximately 20) spread out on a table. Another male student (she isn't sure of his name) looked at the picture and called the pills "triple c's". Mark didn't say what the pills were. She told Mark that he was stupid for doing that, and he walked away.

Today in class, Mark seemed to be acting the way he always does. She didn't notice anything different about his personality. Another male student (she's not sure who) asked Mark what was wrong with him, and he responded "I'm high". Mark then told her "...also XXXXX broke up with me" (seemingly trying to explain his odd behavior). She told him that she was sorry to hear that. He told her that he thinks XXXXX was seeing someone else, and that he doesn't think he's good enough for her.

She noticed Mark writing a note, and she asked him what it was. He told her it was to XXXXX, another student in their class. She asked to see it, and he gave it to her. She read the note, which included Mark thanking XXXXX for being a good friend, and for caring about him. She asked Mark about the note. He told her "I was thinking about bringing a gun to school" He then told her "XXXXX talked me out of it." When he told her that, she didn't know what to say. She asked him who he "planned on hurting" with the gun, and he told her "XXXXX". She asked him which XXXXX, because she has a close friend named XXXXX. He told her "XXXXX". (which is not her close friend) He told her that he thinks that XXXXX convinced all of his past girlfriends to cheat on him. He told her that after he shot XXXXX , he would kill himself.

She then asked him if he would shoot her, and he told her that he "wouldn't plan on hurting" her that way. She then asked him about another friend of hers named XXXXX. Mark told her that he "hadn't planned on shooting her", but if she did "something bad enough", he would.

She then asked him if he had a gun, and he told her that he didn't. Mark then told her that he was just kidding, but she thinks that he was just afraid that she would tell someone. He kept trying to convince her that he was just joking around, and tried to get her to "pinkie swear" with him, swearing that he was kidding. She refused to do so.

As the end of class approached, XXXXX told two of her friends what Mark had said to her. Her friend XXXXX told her that she was really scared about it, and her friend XXXXX didn't seem to have a reaction. She saw her friend XXXXX at the end of the day and told her what Mark had said as well.

She told her mom what happened at school today at approximately 6:30-7:00pm, and her mom called the police.

Stapleton made the following sworn statement;

On Monday night I was on the computer on "My Space" account and was instant messaging (IMing) my girlfriend, XXXXX. I have liked her for over a year since we were in Drama class together. I found out two days ago that she liked me also. We started to "go" together for a few days but then on Monday we began to argue. XXXXX said she was not happy with me, that I was too "clingy". During this time my friend, John Doan, signed on the computer and IMed me. I told John that XXXXX was breaking up with me. I was angry and crying and started saying that I did not care about anything and did not care about living. John agreed with me and started to say that he wanted to die and to kill some people too. John kept saying that his life sucked because his mom beats him and he wanted to die. He mentioned killing his ex-girlfriend, XXXXX. John then said that he was going to take some pills to kill himself. He mentioned to taking Tylenol to just go to sleep.

But then John kept at me saying that he wanted to take it to the next level and that he wanted to get back at people for what was done to him.

At this time XXXXX had joined into the IMing and was saying that he was depressed and ready to die too. XXXXX wanted to shoot up the school too. We were referencing the Virginia Tech. School shooting. I asked what we were going to do? We talked about blowing up the school. John and XXXX wanted to do it but they did not know how. At this time another boy we go to school with, XXXXX had signed on and was telling us to shut up about doing anything to the school because we would get in trouble with the police. XXXXX was saying that he was part of a suicide club of depressed kids that wanted to die too. But XXXXX did not want to do anything about to the school.

On Tuesday at school I was in class and told a friend XXXXX that she should not come to school for about a week. I told her this because she is nice to me. I told her that John was mad at the school and wanted to die and take people with him. I then spent lunch with John and I was crying most of the time because I was upset over my breakup. I did not think that John was serious about doing this so I told XXXXX later in the day not to worry about it, nothing was going to happen.

On Wednesday after school, John and XXXXX came over to my house. We talked about it for only a few minutes. John asked both XXXXX and I if we were going to do anything. John said that he wanted to shoot XXXXX, but don't know why he said that. He also said that he wanted to kill this boy named XXXXX that went to school here last year and another boy that I don't know. When I asked him how we would do anything, John said that he knew a boy who had guns, XXXXX or XXXXX was his name. I don't know who this is or where he lives. I think that this John had just been over to his house. There was no plans to get the guns or break into his house or anything like that. John never contacted this boy that I know of.

We then talked about blowing up the school, but we did not have anything to do it with. John then said that they could turn on the natural gas lines in the science lab and then light a match to blow up the class room. I agreed with them. But as we kept talking about it I then said that I still had goals in my life that I wanted to accomplish and did not want to die yet. XXXXX said that he wanted to have sex before he died. John said that if he could end it he would. The three boys then left his house.

They did not talk about it anymore.

don't think that John or XXX were serious about it. I don't want to do anything about it or kill anyone or myself.

Interview: Def XXXXX (post-Miranda, recited to him in the presence of his adult brother XXXXX and a Freedom coach, in that coach's office).

XXXXX said that he understood his rights and knew why I wanted to talk to him. He was in the 10th grade at Freedom and his grades varied from pretty good to not so good. He was not under the influence of any drugs or alcoholic drink, he was not taking any medication, and was not coerced at all to talk.

XXXXX's style of speaking in the interview the entire time was to repeat questions or mutter down to his chest, not answer and simply look upset or scared, and repeat several times that he had a bad memory and often did not remember things until directly reminded of them.

He was friends with the other two defendants (Doan and Mark Stapleton) and had spent some time with them yesterday afternoon and evening. Mark had just been "dumped" by his girlfriend and was feeling depressed and somewhat angry. He had been talking about wanting his life to end, so XXXXX and Doan linked up with him at his (Stapleton's) place in Richmond Place. It was around 1600 hrs or so and they had the apartment to themselves. At this point XXXXX went on to speak more openly about what came later, which was going to the community pool and talking about games. He seemed to make a point of glossing over the matter at hand, which he knew from what I asked was what the three of them had discussed about possible school violence.

Directing XXXXX back to the topic, I asked him if the three of them or any of the 3 had talked about shooting people at the school. He looked very nervous and dropped his head, staring at his feet and muttering. His brother sat next to him and asked him to simply answer the question. I asked XXXXX again, asking him to answer with a "yes' or "no." He replied "yes," looking ashamed and swallowing nervously.

With much effort on my part to keep the def focused on details--which he was clearly not wanting to provide given his evasive answers and claims of forgetfulness--I managed to draw out some specifics. XXXXX said that Doan (whom he called "John," referring to Stapleton as "Mark") had some depression issues, telling his friends that he never seemed able to make his mother happy and hating his life. John wanted to die and didn't particularly care how his life ended. This topic came up because of the segue from Mark's blues resulting from his girlfriend situation which they had initially gathered to talk about. Then they all talked—XXXXX claiming that the other 2 doing most of it--about who at school was "annoying" to them. They discussed the kids at Freedom who were "obnoxious" and who needed to be dropped "down some pegs."

At this point in the interview XXXXX fell back into his method of speaking very little and hanging his head low over the coach's desk. It was clear that he did not like answering certain questions directly or with much detail, and he resorted to claiming that he "wasn't sure" of a lot because he had a "bad memory." But when I asked him repeatedly what was said about shooting in or bombing the school, he looked extremely nervous muttered that "they" discussed a few things along those lines. I then told him that
I was going to ask him "yes" or "no" questions and wanted answers given that way. He nodded. I then asked him if there was a discussion yesterday amongst the three of them about shooting people at the school. Gulping, he nodded yes then said "yes" weakly. I then asked him if there was anything said about bombs or blowing things up, or about "going out with a bang." He hesitated for a long time then nodded in the affirmative. It should be noted that this interview lasted about 30 minutes at least and took a while because of the def's evasive and vague answers and his repeated claims of a bad memory and being nervous and forgetting.
When asked again if they had talked about shooting people at the school, XXXXX said that Mark and John did but he did not, although he participated in the conversation about how annoying some people were. I asked him then to give me names of the people they talked about shooting, he said that he could not remember them. When I remarked that I found it incredible that 3 high-school boys--who were discussing shooting some people at their school and who spoke about who annoyed them or caused them grief--would not mention names of potential targets, he looked distraught and responded that he could not remember the names (not that there were no names mentioned).
It was then that he gave me the name of Mrs. Woody, a teacher whom John Doan apparently hated. He said that John claimed that he had had a problem with the lady last year, claiming that she had said to him things that he took to be racist. He mentioned her specifically as being someone he would like to shoot. XXXXX then said that Mark said something about a "Mr. or Mrs. White," but he was not sure (the coach present said that there was no one by that name working at Freedom). No other names were given to me, despite my repeated requests for XXXXX to "do the right thing" and provide me with them.

Saying that the 3 of them only talked this way for about 5-10 minutes, XXXXX said that after that he and XXXXX left Mark's apartment and went to the pool area to discuss computer games. He then wanted to give more details about that time period then the focus of the investigation, and I drew his attention back to the matter at hand. Telling him that I doubted that they only talked about this stuff for 10 minutes, I then asked him how the police even knew about any of this. Staring blankly at me for a moment, he said "I think some talked about it..." When I told him that they must have talked at length about this matter and communicated a number of ways electronically for the word to get out, he nodded and hung his head. He then admitted that the three of them fantasized about shooting people at the school but never set a date or actually established a plan to do so.

John Doan had told them that in the past week or so he (John) had taken some pills that helped him "to forget." He knew that Doan spoke openly about dying and not caring how he "went out," a mind-set that blended with Mark's current depression and got them all talking about dying and killing.

Once I had received some particular information outside, I asked XXXXX about the discussion about blowing up the science lab. Looking surprised with widened eyes, XXXXX swallowed and held his head. "Did you guys discuss blowing up the lab by turning on the gas and igniting it?" I asked him directly, and he looked away and didn't answer. His brother looked irritated and turning to XXXXX told him to just answer the questions and to tell the truth. XXXXX then said that they had, in fact, "briefly" talked about that. XXXXX first brought it up, saying that it would be really easy to blow up by turning on the gas, letting it accumulate, then igniting it. And it was Mark who said that if they went to the school and shot people that they should also have some sort of bomb. But XXXXX swore that there was no real plan to actually do that and it got them all to talking about the things that they still wanted to do with their lives before dying, such as going to Japan (when asked, XXXXX confirmed that they all wanted to visit Japan because of their mutual love for anime).

XXXXX had on his own neglected--when repeatedly and pointedly asked to be open and tell everything--to mention this science lab aspect until I brought it up. That was also the case with the guns. After I had been briefed by Ofc. Cravens, I asked XXXXX what he could tell me about a boy named XXXXX. When I out that name out there for XXXXX, he again looked speechless. "What?" he nervously asked. "What can you tell me about XXXXX?" I again inquired. "Does he figure into the matter of the guns?" XXXXX said that he was aware the XXXXX had some firearms at his home but he told Mark and John that he (XXXXX) would never loan them any of them. I responded by telling the def that it was logical that something must have been said about the guns for XXXXX to say that to his friends. With great reluctance he then admitted that they had discussed where to get firearms and it was known that XXXXX had some guns. Mark made a comment to the effect that maybe they could use his, and XXXXX told them to forget it because XXXXX would never let them use them. I then asked XXXXX if any of them then discussed perhaps stealing the guns or including XXXXX into their group, and he shook his head strongly and said "no."

Yet when asked again whether it was true that they had discussed shooting people enough to get to the point of trying to figure out where to get guns, he nodded and said "yes."

When asked again if they had discussed how to blow up the science lab, he said "yes" but "it was only for a second."

He understood how serious this matter was and what adverse consequences this had on his school life. He also saw that law enforcement had to take this sort of thing very seriously and that he would be in the criminal justice system now.

Even though I kept asking him to provide me with names that were mentioned at possible targets, he said he could only remember the name of XXXX.

Saying that he was too nervous to talk clearly, XXXXX asked if he could write a statement.

At the end (after I had heard this information from Ofc. Smith) I asked XXXXX if he heard XXXXX or Mark say that they wanted to shoot Mrs. Woody and watch her bleed, and he said that Doan had said that. But they had not made any plans to make bombs or set a date for doing any of this....they had just been talking.

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