A 15-year-old boy accused of killing a student at his rural Washington state high school and wounding three others has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents made public Tuesday. Caleb Sharpe, a sophomore at Freeman High School near the small town of Rockford, entered the pleas last Friday, the documents said. He made the appearance in juvenile court but authorities have the option of seeking to have him tried as an adult and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich has said Sharpe should face adult charges, the AP reports.
Authorities say Sharpe brought a handgun and an assault rifle to school in a duffel bag he carried onto his high school bus. The assault rifle jammed when he tried to load it inside the school and he pulled out a pistol and shot 15-year-old classmate Sam Strahan in the abdomen and face, killing him, court documents state. Investigators say guns, ammunition, a Molotov cocktail, and a school yearbook with pictures of faces marked with X's have been seized from Sharpe's home. According to court documents, investigators also found notebooks with a "manifesto" and a list of chemicals. (Sharpe warned friends that he was planning to do "something stupid.")