WARNING: The following article contains graphic descriptions of planned violent crimes.
The transgender suspect charged with plotting to carry out a mass shooting at a Maryland school was partly inspired by the trans-identified Covenant School shooter, according to a copy of the charging documents physically obtained by Townhall.
18-year-old high school student Andrea "Alex" Ye, a biological female identifying as male, allegedly authored a 129-page manifesto, where she fawned over—and compared herself to—Audrey "Aiden" Hale, who slaughtered six, including three children, at a Christian elementary school in Nashville. According to probable cause statements, which contain excerpts of Ye's manifesto, Ye recounted searching for school shootings on Google and pulling up a Wikipedia page detailing the Covenant case.
🚨 18-year-old high school student Andrea Ye, whose "preferred name" is Alex, has been charged for allegedly planning to commit a mass shooting at a Montgomery County school in Maryland. Ye allegedly authored a 129-page "manifesto." FBI is investigating. pic.twitter.com/j7GTkMLg5W
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) April 18, 2024
"The shooter was also trans. His name was Aiden Hale, though the news keep calling him Audrey. Makes me want to change my name legally before I commit a shooting to make sure the news doesn't misgender me," reads part of Ye's manifesto. "He was suicidal before the shooting. Just like me. He, too, wanted to kill little kids. A rush of adrenaline fills my body. He's so relatable."
On Page 38, Ye recalled reading news of a shooting at another elementary school, where the death toll was relatively low. "The kill count isn't very high. I could probably beat it," Ye penned. "My ultimate goal would be to set the world record for the most amount of kills in a shooting. If I have enough time, I'll try to decapitate my victims with a knife to turn the injuries into deaths."
"I have also considered shooting up my former elementary school because little kids make easier targets," Ye wrote.
Loathing her time at Lakewood Elementary School, which she vehemently "hated," Ye called the K-5 teachers there "evil" and the other elementary-aged students "little a—holes." Carrying out a mass shooting at the school would be "the perfect revenge," a vengeful Ye pondered.
However, her high school, Thomas S. Wootton High School, is "the best target," Ye wrote, since she's "most familiar with the layout" and it's "the most convenient to enter." Ye mused about "cherry pick[ing]" classrooms that are closest to the entrance.
"It'd be hard to tell me apart from the hundreds of other Asian guys at my school in a police lineup," Ye envisioned, given that the student body is predominantly Asian and white. "I picture the news stories. Deranged killer slays 17. There were no signs, says family and school. Twenty dead, fifteen injured at Rockville school. I plan on shooting myself once the police get there, so I will never be able to see the news stories. I am pretty scared. What if I fail at killing myself and live the rest of my life disabled and serving a life sentence? Maryland doesn't even have the death penalty, which would be preferable in my opinion," Ye wrote.
Ye's apparent plans were fortunately thwarted, thanks to a witness coming forward to flag the manifesto to police.
Last month, an informant (identified as "Witness-One") tipped off local law enforcement, alerting authorities to the existence of Ye's manifesto on March 3. The source, who knows Ye from when the two were in inpatient treatment together at a Maryland psychiatric facility, said Ye had finished writing her "book" and wanted to share it with the witness via a Google Drive link.
The book is purportedly a fictional story, spanning 18 chapters, about a transgender protagonist named "James Wang" who is being bullied at school and intends to perpetrate a mass shooting—set to take place "the next day." One ominous line threatens: "I will be doing it tomorrow." Upon digitally skimming portions of Ye's writing, the witness noted striking similarities between the Asian main character and Ye, concluding that the story is not simply a work of fiction, but derived directly from Ye's own life.
In therapy, Ye expressed experiencing an impulse to molest children, which Ye's character also acknowledges harboring pedophilic thoughts; Ye was allegedly sexually abused as a child and reported the abuse, but CPS declined to take the case.
"But the truth is, I sometimes think I'm a pedophile. I get turned on by little kids and want to touch them the same ways I was touched..." Ye wrote. "The pedo thoughts definitely freak me out more than any other thought I've had, even the mass shooting."
A disclaimer prefaces the doc: "This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This is not a threat of violence, nor does it represent the author's beliefs."
It appears that Ye used this character as a medium to fantasize about mass murder and vicariously strategize how exactly she'd execute a shooting spree, all while thinking she had inoculated herself against criminal liability.
In an Instagram message, Ye conceded understanding that what she says can constitute a terroristic threat. "I hate that I can't be honest w my therapist bc I'd end up in the state hospital or jail," Ye texted. "But technically what i say counts as 'terroristic threats' and that can be a felony."
Ye told the witness over Instagram that her homicidal ideations have worsened to the point that she "might actually act" on them. "I feel like shooting people would be fun," "causing fear" and "seeing them dead," Ye messaged. "I'd want to kill a lot of people or it wouldn't be worth it."
At the beginning of the manifesto, Ye said she'd rather be a serial killer than a mass shooter because the former is "romanticized a lot more," receives "tons of lover letters," and often is the focus of Netflix true-crime documentaries. Meanwhile, "Mass shooters are brushed off unless they are truly unique or good-looking," Ye wrote.
"Millions of people die each day of cancer, old age, etc. and it's no big deal. But shoot someone and suddenly everyone is all concerned [...] Nobody can escape death in the end. Why does it matter who delivers the final blow? It would bring me a lot of joy and satisfaction to kill..." Ye wrote. "I don't get why people hate school shooters so much. I'd be thrilled to be part of a mass shooting. It'd be the most exciting time of my life. I'd either help the shooter out or take a chance at being a hero..."
Indicating a desire to become famous first—"Even infamous," as her manifesto proclaims—Ye told the witness she would want to publish the book beforehand, "run for office," amass a larger online presence, and undergo "a glow up so more people simp" for her. "I also want people to make fanart of me," "talk about me," and "be on the news," Ye messaged in the Instagram chat.
Believing that a shooting was imminent, the witness warned police in nearby Baltimore County. Then, the Rockville City Police Department was subsequently contacted and conducted a welfare check at Ye's residence. But, during the visit, Ye's family did not consent to the responding police officers entering their home, searching Ye's bedroom, or viewing the manifesto in question.
Ye's father, Xuan Ye, told the police that he was not concerned about his daughter's current mental status, insisting that he'd notice a visible change whenever she's going through a mental crisis. If Ye had any thoughts of harming anyone, he felt quite confident she would confide in her therapist. Her father also acknowledged that he was aware that Ye spent several months writing a book, but was very adamant it's just a novel not based on reality, despite admitting he had not yet read any parts of it.
Shortly after police appeared at Ye's townhouse, she revoked the witness's access to the manifesto.
Following the police's appearance, Ye searched "gun range near me"; "minimum age to enter a range"; written and verbal descriptions of an AR-15; a Reddit post, titled "Long term prison sentences make no sense"; and "books like Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock", which tells the story of a high school student planning on shooting his best friend and then himself.
Ye, the subject of previous threat assessment investigations, has been on law enforcement's radar since 2022.
In December 2022, Ye was hospitalized for threatening to "shoot up" a school. A month later, Ye was discharged in January 2023, though she was still fixated on self-harming, school shootings, and explosives. On January 31, 2023, Montgomery County Crisis Center clinicians contacted Rockville's police to execute an Emergency Evaluation Petition (EEP) of Ye, which entails law enforcement escorting a patient, who presents a danger to the life/safety of themself or others, to an emergency room to be examined and possibly admitted involuntarily. A therapist at her high school had referred Ye to the county's crisis center after she obtained a BB gun purchased off of Amazon, without her parent's knowledge, for the purpose of committing suicide by cop.
From February to July of 2023, Ye was hospitalized at the Johns Hopkins Hospital's pediatric unit over her homicidal ideations. At the time, Ye claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus Christ and wanted to crucify herself. Soon she was sent to a residential facility.
Fast forward to March 6, 2024, Ye was taken to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda on an EEP. The following week, on March 13, psychiatric staff were so gravely concerned with Ye's threat level that they felt compelled by law to breach confidentiality and inform law enforcement. By then, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Baltimore Field Office was notified of the situation.
On March 15, FBI agents interviewed Ye's counselor at her high school's Wellness Center. According to the FBI notes jotted down from the interview, during five months of counseling sessions, Ye would express violent thoughts, such as shooting up the school, wanting to hurt others, and smiling while saying it. The counselor described Ye as patiently playing the "long game." Ye had discussed carrying out these violent acts at graduation or walking to Wootton, since she lives so close to the school. Previously, Ye was slapped with a no-trespassing order, barring her from school grounds, over the prior school shooting threats.
Montgomery County Public Schools said in a statement that Ye has not physically attended an MCPS school since the fall of 2022, but she has been actively participating in virtual lessons through a special program called Online Pathways to Graduation.
Speaking with the psychologist treating Ye at Suburban Hospital, the FBI agents assigned to the case learned that Ye referred to the manifesto as her "memoir." Ye had similarly told her high school's wellness counselor that she was writing an "autobiography."
A search-and-seizure warrant was executed at Ye's home on March 21, resulting in police discovering handmade drawings on Ye's iPhone depicting shooting scenes; the shooter is labeled as "Me," and victims are listed as "You." Another sketch was found with the words "Confessions of an Almost School Shooter Alex Ye" scribbled on it alongside a map of Wootton High School.
According to Ye's Google search history, she searched for a Sandy Hook "shooting game"; "what counts as a terroristic threat"; the song "Salad Days", which was played by the Parkland school shooter while he committed the Stoneman Douglas shooting; and a PDF file of The Anarchist Cookbook, which contains step-by-step instructions on how to manufacture explosive devices.
Ye also contemplated detonating a homemade bomb, though she wrote she "enjoy[s] the hunting aspect" of guns. "I could build one with a pressure cooker and remote control car. Or I could make chemical weapons through mixing ammonia and bleach," Ye wrote on Page 2 of her manifesto. "I would blow this whole building down..." she continued, "set a timer with some electronic device, then walk away from the action-movie like blast. Dr. Wilson can die in flames, begging for my mercy. I'd feel like a supervillain."
According to Ye's browser web history, she routinely researched school shootings, including the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 children, and looked up the behavioral threat assessment of Audrey "Aiden" Hale.
Ye was also a part of a Discord server dedicated to glorifying school shootings.
In the Discord chat, Ye asked for an archived video of the full, three-and-a-half-hour CCTV footage of the Columbine shooting. A user called the Discord channel the "Retarded Nations Trenchcoat Mafia," as an homage to the trenchcoat-clad school shooters.
The week of Ye's arrest, police were particularly concerned that the 25th anniversary of Columbine was about to occur on April 20. Copycat killers have historically used Columbine's anniversary date to plot similar-styled school shootings to pay tribute.
Andrea Ye charging documents by mia.cathell
Ye was arrested Wednesday and charged with threatening mass violence, a misdemeanor in Maryland punishable by up to 10 years in prison, if the defendant is found guilty. She is currently being held without bond at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. A trial date has been tentatively scheduled for June 3 after Ye's defense attorney filed a motion seeking a speedy trial.
At Friday's press conference, officials used Ye's made-up name, "Alex," and "preferred" pronouns, even going so far as to address her as "Mr. Alex Ye." Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, claimed it's not newsworthy Ye identifies as transgender after a reporter asked why the Democrat-led county is burying the lede.
"'Cause it's not a lede," a defiant Elrich denied. "Do you publicize every time someone gets murdered that it's a white Christian male who's heterosexual? No. You never publish somebody's sexual orientation when you talk about this. Why you're focusing on it being a transgender is beyond me. It is not a news story. It is not a crime to be transgender. And I'm sorry you feel that way."
Reciting pre-written remarks from the podium, Elrich proudly pointed out "the difficulty of getting guns here."
"Maryland has some of the strictest gun laws," Elrich touted at the televised event, suggesting that the state's firearm restrictions effectively deterred the alleged aspiring school shooter from arming herself. "This could well be a case where the difficulty to get guns prevented him from getting a gun when he wanted it and possibly prevented him from acting as soon as he would have preferred to act," Elrich spoke of Ye, concluding: "So, I think there are some lessons to take away from this going forward."
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a democratic socialist, implodes after a reporter asked why the county is reluctant to admit that alleged would-be school shooter Andrea "Alex" Ye is transgender. Why is the lede being buried?
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) April 19, 2024
"It's not a lede," Elrich said. "It is not a… pic.twitter.com/5iubFsKel0
A "potentially catastrophic event was prevented," Montgomery County Police Department Chief Marcus Jones said at the news briefing Friday. He disclosed there was "considerable patience" exercised by investigators before "any rash decision" was made.
This school year alone, there have been 140 threats, including of shootings and bombings, against Montgomery County schools, Jones divulged. In each instance, officers meet with the parents to ensure that the student is not capable of carrying out the threat. Most threats are not credible, and the student is referred back to the school system for disciplinary action.
"But this case is different. This case is entirely different that takes it to a different level," Jones said.
In the aftermath of Ye's arrest, Wootton High School has increased police presence outside as a visual deterrent, MCPD announced in a press release. However, there's already been a bomb threat at Wootton since security precautions ramped up.
A mother of an MCPS student recently sent a letter to the county's Board of Education addressing the district's "substandard" safety measures, according to correspondence shared with Townhall. The concerned parent asked for the reinstatement of full-time school resource officers (SROs) in every MCPS elementary school. "Depending on the source, there appears to be varying accounts of why and how resource officers were removed from Montgomery County elementary schools: The first was that the dismissal of resource officers was based on concerns about fair treatment of minority students. The second was that County Executive Elrich removed the resource officers without consulting the Board of Education..." she wrote last Wednesday.
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