From Allan Chernoff and Brian Vitagliano
CNN
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A woman bought guns and bomb-making material to indulge her socially outcast 14-year-old son, a prosecutor said Friday.
Michele Cossey, 46, faces charges in connection with her son's alleged plan for a Columbine-like attack on a school. She is accused of buying him a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle, a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle and black powder used to make grenades.
"There's a lot of things at play here," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. said. "You have a child who is obviously emotionally disturbed and a social outcast, and no doubt the parents feel sorry for him and are indulging him.
"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen, obviously, and she has to be held accountable for that."
Cossey was charged Friday with unlawful transfer of a fiream, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment.
A search of the family's home Wednesday in Plymouth Meeting outside Philadelphia turned up the rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, grenades, a bomb-making book and videos of the 1999 Columbine High School attack, Castor said.
Castor said the weapons were plainly visible in the boy's bedroom.
"We alleged that she purchased the 9 mm rifle for her son, allowed him to have black powder, gunpowder and the instruments to make the grenades," Castor said.
"I don't think she had anything to do with planning this attack, but by virtue of her indulgence she allowed him to get into this position."
During a hearing Friday in juvenile court, a judge ruled authorities could continue to hold the teen during their investigation.
The judge also ordered psychiatric and educational achievement evaluations for the youth, who withdrew from school in 2006 and was reportedly home-schooled.
The teen was charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts and was being held at a youth facility. If he is found delinquent, he could face long-term detention and counseling.
The boy was brought into court in handcuffs. At the end of the hearing, he blew a kiss to his mother and whispered, "I love you."
As Cossey sat sobbing in the courtroom, Castor walked over to her and informed her that he had a warrant for her arrest. He told her to go to his office on a lower floor of the courthouse, where the warrant was served.
The boy's father, Frank Cossey, also could face criminal charges pending an investigation, police said.
Police said Frank Cossey was sentenced to house arrest for failing to acknowledge a 1981 manslaughter conviction when he tried to buy a .22-caliber rifle for his son in 2005, The Associated Press reported.
School officials said police acted on a tip from a Plymouth Whitemarsh High School student and his father. They said they believe the tip was prompted by Wednesday's shooting at a Cleveland, Ohio, school in which a 14-year-old killed himself after wounding two teachers and two other students.
In separate incidents in West Virginia, six teens have been arrested and charged with making terrorist threats at two high schools.
In Marion County, four students are suspected of involvement in attempting to set fires at Fairmont High School, and a fifth is accused of making unrelated threats against students and teachers, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said.
In Greenbrier County, a Greenbrier East High School student was arrested Thursday morning after students alerted police that he was making threats of a school shooting, said John Curry, county schools superintendent.
CNN's Catherine Clifford, David Mattingly, Diana Miller, Caleb Silver and Citabria Stevens contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN.
CNN
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A woman bought guns and bomb-making material to indulge her socially outcast 14-year-old son, a prosecutor said Friday.
Michele Cossey, 46, faces charges in connection with her son's alleged plan for a Columbine-like attack on a school. She is accused of buying him a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle, a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle and black powder used to make grenades.
"There's a lot of things at play here," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. said. "You have a child who is obviously emotionally disturbed and a social outcast, and no doubt the parents feel sorry for him and are indulging him.
"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen, obviously, and she has to be held accountable for that."
Cossey was charged Friday with unlawful transfer of a fiream, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment.
A search of the family's home Wednesday in Plymouth Meeting outside Philadelphia turned up the rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, grenades, a bomb-making book and videos of the 1999 Columbine High School attack, Castor said.
Castor said the weapons were plainly visible in the boy's bedroom.
"We alleged that she purchased the 9 mm rifle for her son, allowed him to have black powder, gunpowder and the instruments to make the grenades," Castor said.
"I don't think she had anything to do with planning this attack, but by virtue of her indulgence she allowed him to get into this position."
During a hearing Friday in juvenile court, a judge ruled authorities could continue to hold the teen during their investigation.
The judge also ordered psychiatric and educational achievement evaluations for the youth, who withdrew from school in 2006 and was reportedly home-schooled.
The teen was charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts and was being held at a youth facility. If he is found delinquent, he could face long-term detention and counseling.
The boy was brought into court in handcuffs. At the end of the hearing, he blew a kiss to his mother and whispered, "I love you."
As Cossey sat sobbing in the courtroom, Castor walked over to her and informed her that he had a warrant for her arrest. He told her to go to his office on a lower floor of the courthouse, where the warrant was served.
The boy's father, Frank Cossey, also could face criminal charges pending an investigation, police said.
Police said Frank Cossey was sentenced to house arrest for failing to acknowledge a 1981 manslaughter conviction when he tried to buy a .22-caliber rifle for his son in 2005, The Associated Press reported.
School officials said police acted on a tip from a Plymouth Whitemarsh High School student and his father. They said they believe the tip was prompted by Wednesday's shooting at a Cleveland, Ohio, school in which a 14-year-old killed himself after wounding two teachers and two other students.
In separate incidents in West Virginia, six teens have been arrested and charged with making terrorist threats at two high schools.
In Marion County, four students are suspected of involvement in attempting to set fires at Fairmont High School, and a fifth is accused of making unrelated threats against students and teachers, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said.
In Greenbrier County, a Greenbrier East High School student was arrested Thursday morning after students alerted police that he was making threats of a school shooting, said John Curry, county schools superintendent.
CNN's Catherine Clifford, David Mattingly, Diana Miller, Caleb Silver and Citabria Stevens contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN.
