Ohio teen charged in hoax hostage call at Kansas elementary school
An Ohio teen was indicted in federal court this week for allegedly plotting an attack at a high school in his hometown and calling in a hoax hostage situation at a Kansas elementary school where SWAT searched the school.
Allen Martin Kenna, 18, was indicted for use of an explosive device in connection to the Ohio incident in January and interstate communication of threats for the November 2019 hoax call at Lee Elementary School in Manhattan, Kan. The explosive-device statute includes “attempts to damage or destroy.” The indictment was in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio.
“The safety of our students and our community as a whole is paramount,” Riley County Police Department Director Dennis Butler said in a news release. Riley County and Manhattan have a joint police department.
“We take all threats seriously and will continue to work with the FBI and other law enforcement partners to ensure those involved in acts of violence are brought to justice.”
On the Nov. 13 incident, a caller told police that he was armed and inside the school with a hostage and would “injure any person attempting to enter the school in response to this threat,” Riley County police said.
The caller told the police department and KSNT News that “he had committed other felony crimes and had a person at gunpoint inside the building,” The Manhattan Mercury reported.
The event lasted several hours until a SWAT team went into the school and debunked the caller. Police told The Mercury that the caller was trying to get airtime on the news.
Officers found a journal entry on Kenna’s seized computer with a journal entry the same day as the elementary school hoax, court documents say.
“Oh, also, lee elementary school in manhattan kansas. lol, that was fun, these news outlets … got like everything wrong and stuff,” officers reported the journal entry saying. “Said I did it for notoriety, well why would I try to hide my identey (sic) then? Lol. I mean I guess it could possible (sic) get me notoriety in the long run, but I was just bored, thats (sic) all.”
Several items were seized from Kenna’s home — including the computer, gun magazines, ammunition and knives — during a Jan. 8 search.
Two days before the search is when Kenna went to Cuyahoga Falls High School (Ohio) and took video clips, where he could be “heard making comments about the location of doors, hallways, and his own attempts to avoid detection by students still in the school,” court documents say.
Kenna wore sunglasses, a black coat and pants, and a white camouflage shirt and ran off when he was confronted by school staff, the document says.
A witness said that Kenna planned to “shoot up the school that week during lunches,” the document says. The person said that Kenna “centers life his around researching and talking about terrorism, white supremacy, and his knife collection.”
A journal entry from Nov. 11 — two days before the Manhattan, Kan., elementary school hoax call — Kenna allegedly wrote about not plotting anymore on paper since it was too dangerous.
“I want to take real action, I want to take violent action, and I don’t care what it accomplishes,” officers reported the journal entry saying. “Mowing down a crowd of 30 or so people wouldn’t cause some race war or anything, but it would sure feel good.”
Officers also reported finding Internet searches on active shooter stores, explosives, handling a firearm, “shutting off fire alarms, and cutting phone lines.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2020 at 6:33 PM.