Student With Plans To Carry Out A Mass Shooting Was Arrested

Authorities say college student Paul Steber was planning a mass shooting. The 19-year-old was arrested and the police found weapons and ammunition in his room. The student at High Point University in North Carolina had a 9mm semi-automatic weapon and a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun, as well as several boxes of ammunition, in the student residence where he lived.

Steber faces charges of possession of weapons at the university and threats of mass violence. According to police, the young man had no criminal record, but a classmate called authorities to report that Steber was a "threat to society."

Prosecutors said Steber had been planning a mass shooting since December, studying the shooting in Charleston, North Carolina, in June 2015, when Dylan Roof, a believer in white supremacy, killed 9 African Americans gathered in a church. Roof was arrested and sentenced to death.

At a court hearing, prosecutors added that Steber was planning a major attack for Christmas. "This incident illustrates the importance of the public reporting suspicious activity to the authorities," police said in a statement. "Public information is often the critical first step in preventing acts of mass violence." Steber is in police custody on a $ 2 million bond and will have to go to trial.