A memorial for the 13 people shot and killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 in Jefferson County, Colorado. (Ben Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
A man was arrested Wednesday after making terroristic threats at a Las Vegas church. Prosecutors say the man idolizes Route 91 Harvest festival gunman, Stephen Paddock, and told church members last month that he was planning “something big.” The man, 23-year-old Calin Hodges, was indicted Wednesday on a terrorism charge. According to the indictment, at least 40 people were at the church service when Hodges proclaimed he would become “the greatest mass shooter in history.” Police say they discovered a diary inside Hodges vehicle, that stated “Stephen Paddock had stolen his idea on 1 October” and that he also admired the Columbine High School shooters. Two judges have ordered that Hodges be held on $15,000 bail and confined to a mental health facility.
Silverado High School students walked out of the classroom for 17 minutes Wednesday to protest gun violence, days after a warning from the Clark County School District that students who participate in an upcoming national walkout will face consequences. The walkout offered an early glimpse of what organizers hope will be a national walkout on March 14, when students nationwide plan to leave school for 17 minutes to draw attention to gun violence and gun-control legislation. But in a message to principals on Sunday, Rosanne Richards, an official in the district’s academic unit, said students do not have permission to walk out of school and attendance must be taken in every class period. “If a student chooses to walk out they will be ineligible to participate in any athletics or extracurricular activities (for that day),” the message stated. Silverado students who walked out Wednesday were marked tardy if they returned late for class and absent if they did not return, a district spokeswoman said. A second national student walkout over gun violence is scheduled for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.