Derek Shrout, a 17-year-old kid from eastern Alabama with racist views and a mind for mayhem, has been released after his arrest for allegedly planning to detonate homemade bombs in Russell County High School.
He is now free on $75,000 bond, though he must wear an ankle monitor, stay away from the school, and be under supervisor of a parent while using the Internet.
On Friday, Shrout’s teacher found his journal that contained written plans to target teachers and students, mostly African-Americans. According to local news WRBL, police says Shrout is a white supremacist.
When Shrout’s home was searched, police found “dozens of tobacco containers filled with shrapnel and holes drilled for fuses” — homemade bombs that were just a step or two away from being completed. His journal entries began shortly after the Newtown school shooting, and his plans may have been inspired by the Connecticut massacre.
Shrout has said that his journal entries were fiction, but police disagree. Shrout has retained a well-known lawyer, Jeremy Armstrong, who claims that his client was just venting, had “no intentions … of intending to hurt anyone,” and that it was all being blown out of proportion due to the Sandy Hook shooting. They entered a not-guilty plea when they appeared in court Monday.