US 5th-graders admit to plotting to murder fellow students

Two US elementary school students have admitted to plotting to kill fellow pupils after a gun and a knife was found in a backpack at their learning center.

Two fifth-grade students at Fort Colville Elementary School in the small town of Colville in US state of Washington may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder after admitting to school authorities that they planned to used the weapons, found in the backpack of a 10-year-old kid, to lure another student outside the school and kill her “because she was really annoying,” The Los Angeles Times reports Friday.

According to the report, the two boys also confessed last week that they planned to harm an additional six students at the learning center.

“This was a plan. And it was a plan to kill,” said Stevens County Prosecutor Timothy Rasmussen on Thursday.

Rasmussen added that he would argue in court that the 10-year-old and his 11-year-old codefendant be held “criminally responsible on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and witness tampering – a charge filed after authorities said the boys promised to pay $80 to a student if he agreed not to tell anyone about the plot,” according to the report.

“To me, 10- and 11-year-olds do bad things,” said Rasmussen. “They throw rocks through windows. They shoot BB guns at people’s cars. They hit people with sticks, they set a cat on fire. Those are things that children do. But this was a plot to kill.”

When questioned separately shortly after the weapons were discovered, the two pupils confessed to their plot, authorities said.

“I was going to kill her with the knife and [the other boy] was supposed to use the gun to keep anyone from trying to stop me or mess up our plan,” the older boy told detectives.

When shown a class list, according to the report, the boy identified six other classmates who were targeted.

Incidents of school shootings in the US has continued unabated following the December 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at a elementary school in the state of Connecticut.

However, US lawmakers are yet to agree on any gun-control legislation at a national level.