December trial set for former Wootton High student who allegedly planned school shooting

Bond review hearing for Alex Ye scheduled for June 28

June 21, 2024 9:38 p.m.

Former Thomas S. Wootton High School student Alex Ye, who was arrested for allegedly planning a school shooting, is scheduled to go to trial in December, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Ye’s trial is set to start at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 9 in Montgomery County Circuit Court with Judge Jill R. Cummins presiding, according to court records.

Ye, an 18-year-old Rockville resident, is currently being held at the county correctional facility in Boyds.

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Ye appeared in the Rockville court for a brief hearing Friday at which the trial was scheduled, according to Lauren DeMarco, director of public affairs for the county state’s attorney’s office.

In addition to a trial date, a bond review hearing for Ye was set for June 28 and a pre-trial conference was scheduled for Aug. 19, according to the Maryland Judiciary Case Search database.

Ye’s attorney, Paulette Pagán, did not immediately respond Friday afternoon to inquiries by MoCo360.

Ye was arrested April 17 by county police and charged with threats of mass violence. On May 30, Ye was indicted by a grand jury on one count of mass violence.

At the time of his arrest, Montgomery County Public Schools said Ye had not attended in-person classes at the Rockville high school since the fall of 2022. Instead, he had been taking lessons through a virtual program called Online Pathways to Graduation.

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According to charging documents, Ye allegedly sent a 129-page “fictional story/manifesto about a high school shooting” in early March to an individual he met while both were undergoing inpatient treatment at a psychiatric facility.

“The story focused on a transgender main character being bullied in school and other issues that [a witness] believed were directly from Ye’s life and not indicative of fiction,” the documents stated.

After receiving the manifesto, the individual contacted Baltimore County police, who reached out to Rockville City police, charging documents said. The witness said the book indicated that Ye was planning the shooting for “the next day” and told police that Ye “was in treatment for suicidal and homicidal thoughts,” according to charging documents.

On March 6, Ye was taken to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda after he was served an Emergency Evaluation Petition and involuntarily committed to the facility, according to the charging documents. An Emergency Evaluation Petition is “a way to get a person who presents a danger to the life or safety of themselves or others to an emergency room to be examined,” according to the Maryland Courts website.

On March 13, staffers at Suburban Hospital alerted county police they “were concerned enough with the threat posed by Ye that they felt they were required by law to break [confidentiality] to notify law enforcement and Wootton High School. The FBI was also notified,” according to the charging documents.

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Following the notification, FBI agents interviewed a counselor at Wootton in Rockville who worked with Ye from October 2022 to February 2023 and learned that during that time Ye “would express violent thoughts such as shooting up the school, wanting to hurt other people,” according to charging documents.

In addition, Ye told the counselor that he was “looking up on the internet how to get a gun and how to get into the school, laws and certain loopholes” and that he wanted to shoot up Wootton High School and his elementary school, Lakewood Elementary School in Rockville, according to charging documents.

During the time between Ye’s release and his April 17 arrest, security and police presence were increased at Montgomery County public schools including Wootton and in the community, MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram told MoCo360.

The mounting of alleged evidence that police gathered in that timeframe from Ye’s internet searches and interactions on social media led to Ye’s arrest, police Chief Marcus Jones said at a police press conference April 19.

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