A tip from concerned students helped authorities in upstate New York uncover a plot to attack a rural Muslim community with improvised explosive devices, police said.
Officers with the Greece Police Department on Saturday arrested 20-year-old Brian F. Colaneri 19-year-old Vincent Vetromile, both of Greece, and 18-year-old Andrew C. Crysel of East Rochester following an investigation at Odyssey Academy, Police Chief Patrick Phelan told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.
“Through our investigation, we uncovered a plot to attack a Muslim community in Delaware County,” Phelan said.
A fourth suspect, a 16-year-old student, was also arrested. He has not been identified because he is a minor.
Phelan said authorities would’ve had no knowledge of the planned attack had it not been for Odyssey Academy students, who alerted school officials to a troubling conversation they heard during lunch on Friday.
The 16-year-old suspect approached a group of his classmates with a photo and then made a comment suggesting the subject of the image “looked like the next school shooter.”
Thanks to the tip, authorities were immediately able to conduct an interview with the teen as well as the person featured in the image, which eventually led them to the additional suspects. In executing search warrants, authorities uncovered three improvised explosive devices, packed with nails, black powder and BBs, at the home the 16-year-old suspect.
Police additionally found 23 firearms — a combination of shotguns and rifles — across the suspects’ residences. They allegedly intended to use the weapons in an attack against Islamberg, a Muslim enclave tucked just west of the Catskills.
“We are incredibly grateful for the young people who refused to sit idly by,” Greece Central Schools Superintendent Kathy Graupman said. “Their actions changed the narrative.”
Pehlan emphasized that there was never any threat to the Rochester school, adding that they’ve added additional security at the Odyssey Academy to assuage any lingering concerns.
“Officers will be in the high school tomorrow to make you and your children feel safe,” a police department Facebook post reads. “It is not an indication of a problem or a threat. We are the best trained and equipped police department in the state. We stand ready to protect you.”
Phelan declined to provide specifics of the alleged plot, saying he did not know whether “they had a specific date, but they did have a plan in place.” He said the group met while in Boy Scouts of America — two of them were Eagle Scouts.
The three adult suspects were hit with three counts of three counts of first-degree criminal possession of a weapon or explosive and one conspiracy charge and remain behind bars at the Monroe County Jail on $50,000 bail. The charges for 16-year-old suspect have not yet been released.
