Waseca woman credited with averting school attack

Waseca playground
Bombs were allegedly found in March at Hartley Elementery School playground in Waseca. Authorities said Thursday, May 1, 2014, that they prevented an "unimaginable tragedy" by foiling a teenager's elaborate plot to kill his family and bomb the junior and senior high school in the southern Minnesota city of Waseca.
Glen Stubbe / The Star Tribune via AP

A woman credited with potentially averting a school attack in the southern Minnesota city of Waseca says the suspect acted strangely as he approached a self-storage facility near her apartment.

Chelsie Schellhas tells The Free Press of Mankato she watched him cut though her back yard to reach the facility. She says he slogged through calf-deep puddles instead of taking a parallel path on the dry road. She watched him struggle for about 10 minutes to unlock a unit before finally sliding open the door, stepping inside and closing it. She had her cousin call police.

Court documents say police found the 17-year-old working with bomb-making material by the light of a single lamp. He told police he was planning to kill his family and attack Waseca Junior-Senior High School.

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Information from: The Free Press