The Colorado teen accused in a fatal school shooting told investigators that he planned the shooting for weeks after he was taunted by classmates over his gender identity.
The New York Post obtained documents of police interviews showing that Alec McKinney, 16, told investigators that he had been the target of bullying at STEM School Highlands Ranch and that he wanted his tormenters to suffer.
McKinney, who was born female but identifies as male, reportedly told police that classmates called him “disgusting” and referred to him as a “she.” The suspect said he planned the May 7 attack for weeks, and “wanted the kids at the school to experience bad things, have to suffer from trauma like he had to in his life,” according to the documents obtained by the newspaper.
McKinney is one of two suspects in the fatal shooting, which claimed the life of 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, who reportedly died while trying to confront one of the shooters.
Both McKinney and Devon Erickson, 18, are facing murder charges. According to the New York Post report, Erickson told police that McKinney warned him not to go to school on May 7 because he was planning to get revenge.
Erickson reportedly said he “couldn’t articulate how or why he never told an adult” about the threat, and claimed that he wanted to stop his friend. Instead, he joined in the mass shooting, which left eight students injured in addition to the teen who was killed. One of those students, a female, was reportedly shot accidentally by a school security guard who intervened.
According to the report, Erickson claimed that McKinney fired the first shot.
