WINONA, Texas — **EDITOR'S NOTE: The attached video is from December 2021. CBS19 has chosen not to identify the student or display his mugshot due to him being a minor at the time of his arrest.
A Winona ISD student accused of making threats of a school shooting and having a “death book” last year has been declared incompetent to stand trial, recent court documents show.
The student, who was arrested on Dec. 9 last year, was declared incompetent following in the 7th District Court following findings from a licensed psychiatrist, according to a court order.
The order, which was signed on June 15, states there may be some probability that the teen will reach competency within the foreseeable future. Because of the findings, he was also ordered to receive treatment at a hospital that provides mental health services.
Through an investigation from an anonymous tip, the FBI Tyler Division and Smith County Sheriff’s Office learned the student, who was 17 at the time, had to wear a clear backpack out of concern from his previous actions toward students.
According to an arrest affidavit, students feared he would bring a weapon to school and harm them.
Police said the student had a “death note” notepad with five names on a page and drawings and symbols on other pages.
The affidavit stated the sophomore said to police he had a death book for people who had been "bullying" him and he would write “dark matter, equations, notes cryptozoology and assignments.”
Students reported to school administration that he said if he wore a yellow shirt to school it meant he was going to “shoot up the school,” according to the affidavit.
The student later denied the shirt comments to the staff. The next day after the comments and two days after a school shooting in Michigan, he wore a sweatshirt with yellow draw strings, which scared some students, the affidavit read.
He was asked to change and returned with a shirt that had a yellow logo. Administrators asked him to turn the shirt inside out.
A high school staff member said she saw the sophomore drawing a picture and that he said, “I have to draw the dead white girl,” instead of doing his schoolwork. He later told the employee he just wanted to kill the girl and finish drawing the picture.
The student accused of the threat said to police he never threatened to take a gun to school and does not have intentions of shooting up the school, the affidavit read.
A staffer told police the teen said he was “a Mason and part of being a Mason is you have to kill someone,” the affidavit stated.