Teens sentenced to 40 years for plot to attack Georgia high school
Two teenagers have been sentenced to 40 years in prison for plotting an attack on the Georgia high school they attended that included drafting a map of the campus and an apparent "hit list" of students and teachers they were targeting. Alfred Dupree III, 19, and Victoria McCurley, 18, will both serve 20 years in prison before serving the next 20 years on probation.
Dupree and McCurley were both 17-years-old when they were arrested in 2017 for allegedly targeting Etowah High School in 2017, CBS Macon, Georgia, affiliate WMAZ-TV reports. After searching their homes, authorities discovered a journal detailing plans for the attack, which had no set timeline, along with a mysterious powder and what appeared to be a homemade explosive device.
Following their arrests, WMAZ-TV spoke with classmates who knew Dupree and McCurley. One student, Skylor Webb, said he sat with Dupree at lunch. "He would make jokes about school shootings and stuff but, he would make funny jokes about them," Webb told WMAZ-TV. "Like everybody at the table that we were sitting with at the time, laughed. So, we never really took that as a sign."
A friend of McCurley's, Tristan Shirley, expressed shock that nothing had been done after posts showing images from the 1999 Columbine High School attack appeared on McCurley's Instagram.
"There's something that should have been said if somebody saw the Instagram because that's a sign," Shirley said.
Authorities likened Dupree and McCurley's plans to the Columbine attack that left 15 people dead and 24 injured. On Friday, Dupree and McCurley pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit arson and unlawful possession of a destructive device.
According to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, though their arrest records have been sealed, Dupree and McCurley were tried as adults.
