Copycat school mass shooting thwarted as police seize arsenal from California student

An alert security officer at a California high school helped thwart what police and school officials often fear after a mass shooting: a copycat incident.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they raced to prevent just such an incident Friday, acting on a tip from a security officer at El Camino High School in Whittier, southeast of Los Angeles. The security officer overheard a “disgruntled student” making threats to open fire in a school.

Investigators arrested the student later Friday and confiscated a “collection of weapons and ballistic evidence” from the 17-year-old student’s home.

Police displayed a photo of the student’s arsenal that included at least two AR-15 type assault rifles, two handguns and stacks of ammunition clips.

The student, who is being held without bail, remains unidentified due to being a minor, said sheriff department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In a letter posted online Wednesday, Superintendent Hasmik Danielia of the Norwalk-La Mirada school district said officials were cooperating with the police and have maintained regular drills involving active gunmen.