Arizona police arrested four 5th-grade girls who reportedly plotted to kill a boy from their class and make it look like a suicide after he broke up with one of them.
Law enforcement personnel from the Phoenix suburb of Surprise revealed that each of the girls was given a role in the scheme to kill the unidentified target. The general plan was to lure the boy into the bathroom and stab him in the stomach using a knife.
5th-Grade Girls Arrested Over Plot To Kill Boy
One of the girls was tasked with bringing the weapon to school, another would be the one to stab him, a third would stand as a lookout, and the fourth would write a suicide note. The group's plot was believed to have been made during lunch and recess breaks at Legacy Traditional School in October last year.
The planned murder was foiled after other students in the school overheard the group talking about the details of the plot and told school administrators. Police authorities said that the girls' plan may have been concocted as a result of the boy breaking up with one of the suspects, according to the New York Daily News.
When the students were arrested and taken into custody for questioning, three of them were said to have expressed remorse, while the fourth one just laughed and offered different excuses. The suspects, who were aged 10 and 11, were charged with threatening and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
A clinical therapist also said that the young students' "underdeveloped" brains could have prevented them from completely comprehending the seriousness of the actions they were trying to commit.
Surprise police later said that the girls were released to their parents and were suspended from school, pending expulsion. The department added that it did not plan to share additional details regarding the incident, the New York Post reported.
A Troubling Incident
At the time that the school's administrators were alerted to the potential scheme of the group of girls, they ordered the suspects' backpacks to be searched. They were also questioned individually while their parents were present.
The clinical therapist, Travis Webb, added that the female brain at the suspects' ages is not even half developed, noting the part of the brain that regulates emotion was still lacking. She noted that the female brain is finished developing when a person is in her early 20s, as per the Upper Michigan Source.
The incident is similar to the 2014 "Slender Man" stabbing, where 12-year-old girls from Wisconsin lured their friend to a park following a sleepover. The two suspects were trying to please the horror character by stabbing the victim 19 times.
