OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:20 PM – Sunday, October 8, 2023
A 19-year-old has been arrested in Florida after police discovered his personal notes and written plans to “kill everyone” at his high school.
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According to media reports, Henry Joseph Horton IV was arrested after police discovered that he was planning a mass shooting at Okeechobee High School and other south Florida regions.
Authorities reported that they pulled over the man on September 18th for a headlight violation in Jupiter, a town on the southeastern coast of Florida.
The officer later found written pages in Horton’s vehicle that allegedly outlined a plan to buy weapons and “kill everyone at OHS [Okeechobee High School] with [his] guns.”
He reportedly graduated from the school in May of 2022.
The 19-year-old added that the reason he wanted to attack the school was “for attention and fame.”
A probable cause document from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office stated that Horton allegedly planned to kill one school administrator as well as 14 other people whom he was targeting.
According to the affidavit, Horton had planned to carry out the attack on January 2nd, 2026.
Additionally, in a separate planned attack, Horton had expressed a desire to bring a knife to El Rey Jesus, a church in Miami, Florida, in order to kill another 10 people in a “stabbing spree,” according to the confiscated papers.
Horton had a mental health evaluation at JFK North Hospital before being detained.
His parents told reporters that their son was not a threat, but that he suffers from severe mental health issues.
“He needs to be treated for mental illness and not be treated as a criminal,” the suspect’s mother, Marcie Horton, said. “He needs a firm diagnosis to find out what the problem is and go from there and get him the help that he so desperately is asking for.”
Horton’s father stated that his son had previously made similar threats.
“He just said he has these thoughts, and he doesn’t know how to control them,” he said. “They just keep coming into his head.”
The suspect is currently being held on a $1 million bond at the Palm Beach County main jail on a charge of written threats to murder or hurt and will appear in court on November 6th.
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