Teen accused of planning mass shooting in Colorado Springs

Police arrested 19-year-old William Whitworth after a 911 call from his sister indicated he was planning a school shooting. Whitworth’s sister refers to him as “Lilly,” and a spokesman for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said Whitworth, a male, is beginning to identify as female.

Was this a credible threat? Whitworth admitted to investigators that he had been planning a school shooting for months at one of the schools he had attended, as well as some churches. He said that he had no specific reason for attacking the school. Investigators found a hand-drawn map of the building and a written manifesto. Whitworth admitted to looking up how to make an explosive detonator on YouTube.

Dig deeper: Listen to Lauren Canterberry and Kim Henderson’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about the grief on the ground after a recent mass shooting in Nashville, Tenn.