Cell phone video just released by prosecutors offers a chilling view into the mind of a Florida teenager who in 2011 was charged with plotting to kill teachers and students with bombs at his Tampa high school.
Jared Cano, then 17, wrote a manifesto that detailed his plans for an attack in August 2011 on the first day of classes at Freedom High School in Tampa, Fla., from which he had been expelled in March 2010. Police arrived at the home where Cano lives with his mother to arrest him. In his home police recovered bomb-making material, including fuses, timers, shrapnel, accelerant and plastic tubing.
In the recently released video, Cano outlines to the minute his plans to blow up Freedom High School.
"For those of you retards who don't know who I am, I'm the Freedom High School shooter in Tampa, Florida. Well I will be in a couple months," Cano says on the video. "My plan is to set a bomb here at point A, here at point B, point C and point D. Then I got to get to the side entrance of the school by 7:24. The bombs blow at 7:26."
Cano never got the chance to go through with his deadly plan, because a friend tipped off police and he was arrested. In addition to the bomb-making materials at his home, investigators found a manifesto and illustrations detailing his plans.
"We were probably able to thwart a catastrophic event," Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said.
The newly released cell phone video shows Cano not only intended to kill as many students as possible, but that he specifically targets two teachers who Cano says did him wrong -- as well as sparing one teacher's life.
"[I'll] Come through the door then shoot everybody at the front desk," he said on the video. "Mr. Costanzo's office is right here, I've got to kill him. Mrs. Carmody is here I've got to kill her. Mr. Pears is here, I've got to make sure he doesn't die, because I like him.
At times during his boastful rant Cano smokes marijuana. In the clip he says that he would retrieve a stash of weapons hidden near the school and come back in.
"I'm going to come in and advance on the courtyard where there'll probably be at least sixty people," he said
While he lays out the details of his master plan, Cano also offers a solution to stopping him and others like him.
"If you don't like it," he said, "just find a way to find people like me and just line us up and shoot us."
Prior to his arrest, Cano had an "extensive criminal record," according to police, who confirmed that he had broken into a house and stolen a firearm. The victim of that theft, a convicted felon, did not press charges. Cano had also been charged with the possession of marijuana, carrying a concealed weapon and a taser.
Having been jailed since August 2011, Cano will be sentenced on December 5, after he pled no contest to charges of intending to harm others with a destructive device. His defense attorney has said he plans to call the teen's family as character references, WFTS reported. He has hopes of getting time served.
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