No mention of psychiatric evaluation, per @MichaelGordonTV
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With more facts being provided by court documents filed in his case, we wanted to provide an update on Alwin Chen, the 18 year old Clarksburg High School student charged with bringing a loaded gun to school.
• Chen has been in custody since February 15th, when a loaded gun was found in his book bag. The gun contained 13 live rounds and a gun holster worn on Chen’s belt was also found. He agreed to a recorded interview with a detective following his arrest and was polite and cooperative during this interview.
• MoCo prosecutors initially stated that a “list of grievances” was found in his journal. A Montgomery County Police statement said there was “no wording regarding any threat nor any expression of wanting to cause harm to anyone at the school in this journal.” Since the initial statement, prosecution has acknowledged that there was no list of grievances.
• Court documents filed in his case say that Chen had access to weapons in his townhouse that are owned by his father (including an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a pump shotgun, and two revolvers).
• The Montgomery County Police Department has also since released the following on what was seized from Chen’s home:Two rifles, a shotgun, two handguns, ammunition, inert (replica) grenades, a ballistic vest, a replica electrical firing device (referred to as a clacker), and Chen’s journal.
• The prosecutors filing includes a statement from another student saying that Chen was “always taking about bringing guns to school and saying he would kill anyone.”
• The prosecutors filings note entries into Chen’s journal from several dates, including the following:
April 24, 2017: “I’m lonely and worthless so, I don’t care. I am ready to die.”
May 1, 2007: “I might start doing some vigilante operations” and “I don’t plan on killing people, but I’m surely going to hit evil people.”
Unknown date: “Sometimes I think I am crazy or mentally ill, but I hide it and refuse to admit it because I know how to cope and blend into society but it’s just too lonely.”
• Prosecutors have pointed out that Chen brought the loaded handgun to school almost every day from December 2017 to when he was caught on February 15th, 2018.
• Chen admitted to the gun being in his book bag when asked by school security, saying “there is a loaded Glock 19 inside the book bag” and described it as a regular occurrence.
• Chen’s attorneys that the journal “makes no threat or expresses a desire to cause harm” and that “it has now become clear that the State’s representations regarding dangerousness were in significant error.”
A bond review is scheduled for 1pm today, which will likely determine whether Chen will be kept in jail until trial or released.
UPDATED AT 1:32pm to reflect NO BAIL for Clarksburg High School student that brought loaded gun to school. The judge says he “does present a danger to the community.”
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