Authorities said Thursday they caught a teenager who identifies as transgender allegedly discussing plans for a school shooting on the same social media platform used by extremists in similar cases.
Police arrested 18-year-old Trinity Shockley and charged her with plotting to attack Mooresville High School in Indiana after a tip from the FBI, court records show. A police report details how others allegedly encouraged her plans on the online chat service Discord in a familiar tale of online radicalization.
Shockley’s arrest comes after a fatal shooting at Antioch High School in Tennessee in January, weeks apart from another at Wisconsin’s Abundant Life Christian School in December. Both were carried out by teenagers who expressed violent thoughts in Discord communities ahead of their attacks, including neo-Nazi sentiments. The shooters each took their own lives just after killing and injuring several others at the schools.
ProPublica reported that the two shooters even interacted with each other in other social media communities dedicated to glorifying violence.
The charges against Shockley also reflect a tragedy from January 2024, when a student opened fire at Perry High School in Iowa after joining a Discord chat discussing “school massacres” and telling other users about his intentions. He killed a sixth-grade boy and injured five others before killing himself.
Discord reported the chat to the FBI weeks prior to Perry High School shooting. “Discord has a zero-tolerance policy against content that glorifies violence and violent extremism, which is reflected in our Community Guidelines,” the company told NBC News. Social media accounts showed the Iowa student identified with “he/they” pronouns and was active in a transgender-related Reddit community, Post Millennial reported.
Discord’s press team did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Trinity Shockley is charged with plotting to commit a school shooting after Discord users encouraged her. (Photo: Morgan County Sherriff’s Office)
Shockley is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and making terrorism threats and is in jail without bond, according to local media. Her court-appointed attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police said Shockley had told a school counselor about her obsession with Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nicolas Cruz and showed her a locket with his face on it, claiming to be in love with him.
She allegedly planned to carry out the massacre on Valentine’s Day, the seven-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting. The police report said she also expressed admiration for other mass shooters: Andrew Blaze, Elliot Rodger, Ethan Crumbley and white supremacist Dylan Roof.
“I’ll be honest. I’m close to shooting [my school] up,” Shockley, who went by “Jamie,” told an unidentified user, according to a detective who obtained chat records. “I have an AR-15.” “That’s so cool!!” the user replied. “But wait, do you have a solid plan??” The user allegedly said “your secret is safe with me bro” and “Kids are awful And if you do carry it out good luck.” Another user Shockley allegedly shared her plan with said “youre gonna look great” in response to Shockley sending a picture of a bulletproof vest.
The FBI was first alerted of the alleged Discord posts from Shockley through an anonymous tip with records of the chats. The agency reached out to Discord requesting information on Shockley and later passed along its findings to the Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department. The police report discussed no specific motive for Shockley’s potential attack beyond general hatred of people at the school and romanticization of mass murder.
“I currently live with my father, my mother passed away,” Shockley allegedly wrote in one of three journals police found when searching her home. “I am [also] a transgender male. I have a lot of homicidal thoughts.” The police department said, “Each notebook depicted swastikas, the words ‘kill’, ‘bang’, ‘I hate you all DIE DIE DIE’ among other obscenities.”
Shockley previously sought mental health resources at her school and “expressed suicidal ideation in the past,” the report said. She wrote in a notebook that she was a victim of bullying at school and most people there “are all a [waste] of life.”
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America
