Student Busted Plotting Mass Shooting After Buying Rifle From Facebook Marketplace

A college student in Florida has been arrested on Thursday, Dec. 9, after police found out about his plot to perpetrate a mass shooting in his school after some of his concerned friends online reported his actions to the authorities.

John Argis Hagins IV, a 19-year-old licensed pilot studying at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has been arrested after two students came forward to the police regarding Hagins' alleged plans to enact a mass shooting on campus during its finals week, the Daily Beast reported.

Hagins, who had recently bought a Kel-Tec SUB2000 collapsible rifle on Facebook Marketplace before flaunting it on his social media, was flagged by two of his friends after they felt concerned about the messages that he was sending in their Snapchat group chat, according to CBS News.

“It was a Snapchat group message that they were involved in and they were very concerned about what was being relayed in this Snapchat group chat,” Daytona Beach Police Department Chief Jakari Young said.

When Hagins was arrested, he was found to have the collapsible rifle as well as a rifle scope, six magazines of bullets, ear protection, and a reported “800 rounds” of ammunition. It is believed that he planned to practice at a shooting range first before enacting the plot.

“He may want to claim that it was all a joke and he wasn’t serious about it. But we don’t find anything funny about discussing a mass shooting on a campus,” Young said. “If he was looking for attention, he's got it.”

Jailed without bond, Hagins has been charged for written threats to kill, committing a first-degree felony in furtherance of terrorism, as well as attempted murder. He has also been suspended and banned for life from entering the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

“Law enforcement officers, Campus Safety and our students did an exceptional job today and helped keep our community safe, and we are in their debt,” Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler wrote in a letter to the students.

Though police have yet to release an official statement regarding his motivations, they believe that Hagins was failing his classes, which could possibly have led to his attempted mass shooting.

Hagins’s family has yet to make a public statement regarding the incident.