Teen Says He Brought Gun to School to Protect Against Mass Shooting

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Montgomery County prosecutors have reached a plea agreement with a student who was accused of bringing a loaded gun and knife with him to Clarksburg High School, according to court records.

Records show the plea letter was sent to the defense team of 18-year-old Alwin Chen on March 26.

Officials said Chen brought the gun to school on several occasions and would carry it in a holster while sometimes wearing body armor. Prosecutors painted Chen as a troubled person who wrote in the journal that he is worthless and ready to die, according to the court documents.

After his arrest on Feb. 15, Chen told police he brought the gun to school to protect himself and others in case of a school shooting, court documents stated. His arrest came one day after the deadliest U.S. school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Following his arrest, authorities said they found a cache of weapons inside his home, including two rifles, a shotgun, a ballistic vest, inert grenades, two handguns and a replica electrical firing device and ammunition. Chen was ordered to be held without bond.

Court documents say Chen told investigators he feared for his safety, and the safety of his classmates —so he brought a loaded gun to Clarksburg High School and wore body armor on a daily basis for two months.

...Chen was arrested a day after the Feb. 14 mass school shooting that left 17 dead in Parkland, Florida. At a bond hearing later that month, Montgomery County prosecutors told the judge that Chen posed a risk due to “a list of grievances” that had been found in his journal.

Defense attorneys argued that “there is no list of grievances” and cited a Feb. 20 Montgomery County police statement that said the journal contained “no wording regarding any threat nor any expression of wanting to cause harm to anyone at the school in this journal.” (That police statement was also cited in a Feb. 20 letter to Clarksburg parents.)

Chen reportedly told police that he brought the weapon to school to protect himself from a mass shooting similar to the one in Florida.