DA Wants More Info Before Charging Teen In School Shooting Plot

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles County prosecutors have asked the sheriff's department to conduct additional investigation before a decision is made on whether to file a criminal case against a 17-year-old student accused of making a shooting threat at El Camino High School in South Whittier, it was revealed Thursday.

Authorities said the threat involving El Camino High was made Friday, two days after a former student at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, went on a campus shooting rampage that left 17 people dead.

The El Camino student -- whose name was not released because of his age -- was reportedly upset with one of his teachers over a set of earphones and allegedly threatened to "shoot up the campus," leading to a search of his home and the discovery of a cache of weapons, authorities said.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said investigators responded to a report by Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District resource officer Marino Chavez, who overheard the student threatening that "he was going to shoot up the school sometime in the next three weeks."

Chavez, who's been on the job for nearly three decades, told reporters that he took the teen to the school's office, where the boy confirmed the remark, prompting Chavez to contact the sheriff's department.

"He did say that he was just kidding, that he did not mean it," Chavez said. "I said, `Well, you can't say those things on a school campus."'

"He was angry with the teacher's issue about his (earphones) in class and he was not allowed to go to her class the next day, so he was supposed to go to the office," Chavez said.

No weapons were found on the student at the time, officials said.

McDonnell said deputies learned that the boy had an extensive discipline history at the school, and that a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic weapon was registered to his home address.

Deputies served a warrant at the student's home in Norwalk, and found two AR-15 rifles, two handguns and 90 high-capacity ammunition magazines, McDonnell said.

The teen's 28-year-old brother, Army veteran Daniel Eriberto Barcenas, was arrested for allegedly having an unregistered AR-15 rifle in the family's home. He was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon at the Bellflower courthouse on a misdemeanor count of possession of an assault weapon. The boy remains held in a juvenile detention facility, according to the sheriff's department.

"This is not unusual for prosecutors to ask for additional information before pursuing next steps in the legal process," according to a sheriff's department statement. "We will continue to work with the DA to facilitate further investigation and let the facts take us wherever they lead."

City News Service; Shutterstock