Attorneys for the high school student accused of bringing a loaded gun to his psychology class failed to get him released from jail at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Lawyers for Alwin Chen, 18, allege prosecutors overstated the case against the Clarksburg High School student at a hearing last week. They said there is no "list of grievances," as an assistant state's attorney suggested to a judge.
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But Maryland District Court Judge John Moffett found that even without a "list of grievances," Chen still presented a danger to the community. He said he could find no conditions that would allow him to release the teen, even on home detention.
Chen's father told the Chinese language WorldJournal.com that his son had spent four years in the ROTC, and that he had guns and weapons in the house so he could train.
A new filing from the Montgomery County State's Attorney's office acknowledges there was no list of grievances, but provides a number of other details to argue that Chen is a threat to the community. The pleading quotes from Chen's journal entries from last spring. He wrote, "I might start doing some vigilante operations...I don't plan on killing people, but I'm surely going to hit evil people."
Chen allegedly told detectives that he frequently went to school with a Glock semi-automatic handgun in his backpack, or in a holster under his shirt. Prosecutors say he may have done it every day. According to police, he told them he was trying to protect himself or other classmates from a mass shooting.
Chen also had access to an AR-15 assault rifle, a pump shotgun and two other handguns owned by his father and kept in his family's townhouse in Germantown.
He allegedly put the Glock he carried to school together with parts he ordered on line and tools he got at Home Depot.
Shortly after prosecutors told a judge that Chen had a "list of grievances," Montgomery County Police offered a public correction that, "There is no wording regarding any threat nor any expression of wanting to cause harm to anyone at the school in this journal."
Prosecutors said they made an honest mistake based on a brief discussion with investigators just before the earlier hearing.
