The mother of a 14-year-old who police say planned to shoot multiple classmates at his Pennsylvania high school was charged on Monday in connection to the foiled plot, authorities said.
Lenora Ann Hendrix, of Markleysburg, Pennsylvania, was charged with knowingly and intentionally delivering or providing a firearm to a minor, according to ABC affiliate WTAE, after her son threatened to carry out a mass shooting at Uniontown High School last month.
The teen, who wasn't indentified, was taken into police custody on Jan. 25, just days after mass shootings at high schools in Kentucky and Texas. A witness reported that she overheard the suspect saying he would kill four classmates he disliked, officials said.
Police later obtained a search warrant for the suspect's home and recovered from his bedroom a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun, two machetes, throwing knives, two lever-action rifles, a revolver, a cross bow, "and bulk ammunition for all of the weapons," Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower said at a news conference in January.
When asked about the weapons, Hendrix told police that she permitted her son to store firearms in his bedroom to teach him responsibility and to "let him grow up," according to a criminal complaint.
The suspect "indicated that it would be extremely easy to sneak a gun into the school in his backpack," Bower said. "And he also indicated that he could use a sniper rifle from a distance, or use a shotgun for mass casualties."
Bower praised the witness who overheard and reported the threat, saying "thank God" she called the police and that "a catastrophe" like was "averted today."
The teen was charged with terroristic threats, possession of a firearm by a minor and criminal attempt to commit catastrophe, authorities said. It was unclear if Hendrix or her son had obtained an attorney as of Tuesday morning.