Colorado police have intercepted a teenage male in the process of attempting to transition to a female allegedly planning to attack three area schools, according to area media and court filings.
Reported on April 6 by Colorado media outlet The Gazette, 19-year-old William Whitworth was arrested on March 31 after his sister “claimed that Whitworth was behaving violently and made references to school shootings earlier in the day.”
Officers attending to the dispute found the man “lying in bed, drunk, in a room piled with trash that had several holes in the wall” and also discovered “instructions on how to build homemade bombs and a whiteboard with the floor plan to Timberview Middle School,” according to court filings.
The Gazette states that Whitworth’s sister referred to William as “Lilly” and called him “their sister” when speaking to police.
Local media outlet KRDO elaborated further on the contents of the Affidavit, quoting police dispatch as giving the following details:
- Sister [William, aka “Lilly”] just made a violent approach to Reporting Party (RP)
- Sister threatened to shoot up a school
- Sister has ever anger issues
- Sister made comments day before yesterday ref school shooting
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When deputies arrived on the scene, an unidentified person said someone was “very upset and punched holes inside the walls,” but would not immediately let police inside, KRDO recounted.
KRDO also stated, “The door to a bedroom was off its hinges and lying beside the opening” and deputies were quoted as noting that Whitworth “appeared to be very drowsy and could not stay awake” and would answer questions with his eyes closed.
The Affidavit as recalled by KRDO also alleges that when asked why he would shoot up a school, Whitworth replied, “Why does anyone do it?”
Perhaps most interestingly, KRDO—unlike network media outlets—reported that the Affidavit alleges that when Deputies executed a search warrant at the residence, they found a copy of Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto in addition to “more books with notes.”
A spokesperson for the District Attorney handling the case, Eric Ross, was paraphrased as telling The Gazette, “Whitworth is in the process of transitioning to female.”
The emergence of a transgender shooter is a sensitive topic after 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a woman attempting to transition to a man, shot and killed three children and three teachers at a Nashville Christian school at the end of March.
Reporting by CNN on Hale’s killing spree noted she still lived with her parents and “was under a doctor’s care for an ‘emotional disorder.’”
Hale was killed at the scene by emergency response police officers after opening fire as they swept a nearby hallway.
A second CNN article on the tragedy stated that Hale had purchased seven guns, three of which were used in the shooting, and “left writings pertaining to the shooting and had scouted a second possible attack location in Nashville,” including maps of the school and how she planned to commit her crime.
According to Newsweek, the “writings” were really a manifesto where “she documented, in journals, her planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School.”
The details in Whitworth’s case are, unfortunately, similar.
“Deputies found a ‘manifesto’ with the names of mass shooters, political commentators and more while searching Whitworth’s home,” The Gazette stated based on the Affidavit.
The outlet also said attending officers “found a notebook with instructions on how to make firearms using a 3D printer and how to make homemade explosives” and that Whitworth had viewed YouTube videos about how to build a detonator.
When questioned by police on why he wanted to commit a massacre at a school, William Whitworth only replied, “No specific reason” and admitted he was “about a third of the way from doing it,” according to the article.
According to Colorado-based NBC affiliate KOAA News, Whitworth also wrote a manifesto “with an entire page referencing mass killings.”
KRDO further recounted the contents of the Affidavit, which alleges that the manifestos contained:
- Lists of firearms and how to use 3D printers to manufacture them
- A detailed and named hitlist
- The creation of “improvised explosive devices”
“One of the notebooks also had a list of various mass shooters, serial killers, politicians, and entertainers with commentary on each,” KRDO added.
The list provided was the following:
- Eric and Dylan: Losers
- Adam Lanza: To smart
- Isreal Keyes: Degenerate
- Lauren Southern: Pathetic
- Vaush: Terrorist
- Donald J. Trump: Con-mam
- Bad cops: Useless garbage
- Stockholm, Name: Liam K.
KOAA reports that Whitworth is held on a very small $75,000 bond with a May 5 preliminary hearing scheduled, according to a statement by the School District, Academy District 20.
The District added that, “Two other district schools, Pine Creek High School and Prairie Hills Elementary were mentioned in the affidavit.”
AD20 further states that although Whitworth attended three schools under its jurisdiction, Timberview Middle School, Prairie Hills Elementary, and Home School Academy between 2014 and 2016, he was only a student for nine months.
An official media release by the 18th Judicial District Attorney announced the following charges against Whitworth:
- Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder In the First Degree (2 Counts)
- Criminal Mischief
- Menacing
- Interference With Staff, Faculty, or Students of Educational Institutions
