Two Students Arrested in Fla. Plot

07:50 PM ET 08/25/99

PALATKA, Fla. (AP) - Two boys at a school for troubled children were arrested on charges they were plotting a return to their former high school to kill students and teachers. William Tyler Black, 17, and Jeffrey Burton Carter, 16, were charged as juveniles with conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, Capt. Dick Schauland of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

History teacher David Nye discovered a drawing Monday that Carter had made of a student with a bloody knife, a shotgun and an assault weapon at Palatka High School, Schauland said.  When Nye asked Carter about the drawing, Carter and Black told him they had a plan to do a better job of killing than was done at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

In April, two Columbine students killed 12 classmates and a teacher there before committing suicide.

Black and Carter told Nye they were outcasts at Palatka because they worshipped Satan, Schauland said. Both were arrested Tuesday night at their homes and placed in a juvenile detention center.

``They had a detailed plan, whether or not they were intending to do something, we don't know,'' Schauland said. ``To us, this was a warning sign.''

Top of Page