EVERETT — A Lynnwood teen is now charged with staging a convenience store robbery that his alleged accomplice reportedly claimed was part of a plan to finance a mass murder at their school.
Marquez Daniel attended ACES High School with Joshua Alexander O’Connor. Both 18-year-olds are charged with first-degree robbery in connection with a Feb. 12 holdup at a store along W. Casino Road in Everett.
O’Connor was arrested after his grandmother called police Feb. 13 to report that she’d discovered a military-style rifle in her grandson’s room, along with a journal detailing plans for a mass killing at the high school.
The journal was found the evening before the grandmother placed the call, while O’Connor was away from home, deputy prosecutor Andrew Alsdorf said in documents filed late last week in Snohomish County Superior Court.
“At the same time that O’Connor’s grandmother was discovering and reading the journal, O’Connor and the defendant were in the midst of committing an armed robbery,” Alsdorf said.
Daniel was arraigned on the robbery charge Monday and a May 4 trial was scheduled. The charging papers don’t address whether the defendant had any knowledge of O’Connor’s reported school-shooting plans.
The convenience store robbers tried to hide their identities by donning rubber masks. One, who waved around what appeared to be a Hi Point 9mm carbine, wore a mask that looked like Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator. The other’s mask resembled President Donald Trump.
In his journal, O’Connor allegedly memorialized his excitement about staging the holdup, and the fear of the clerk as he pointed the rifle at her face.
“It was exhilarating; I’m listening to a police scanner right now of Everett PD. Looks like my friend and I got away with it,” O’Connor reportedly wrote.
O’Connor’s journal reportedly contains entries about using holdups to raise money to buy weapons and ammunition for the attack on ACES. He’s now jailed on attempted murder and robbery charges.
A search of O’Connor’s room not only recovered the rifle and journal, but also the rubber masks used Feb. 12, Alsdorf wrote. O’Connor’s DNA reportedly showed up on the Kim Jong Un mask, while Daniel’s DNA was on the Trump mask.
The holdup was recorded on surveillance video. The robber wearing the Trump mask had on a pair of sweat pants and athletic shoes similar to those found later in Daniel’s home, according to court papers. The robber also was wearing a small, black backpack. When he was arrested at ACES on Feb. 27, Daniel was wearing a similar backpack, Alsdorf wrote.
Daniel has a felony second-degree theft conviction. He reportedly has bragged of gang ties and carrying guns, the prosecutor wrote.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@herald net.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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