Would-be Colorado school shooter’s mom says it was ‘family decision’ to call cops
The mother of a Colorado teenager who told police she had been planning to carry out a local school shooting said it was “a family decision” to notify cops after learning of the chilling plans.
Melissa Whitworth-Mathes told The Post her family made the collective decision to have her daughter, Lilly, “held accountable for her actions.”
Lilly, a transgender woman who was born William, ultimately admitted to police she had begun researching weaponry and the layout of local schools, and had penned four pages of a manifesto — which praised serial killer Ed Kemper and Sandy Hook elementary school shooter Adam Lanza — according to a police affidavit obtained by The Post.
“We are also victims in the cases against Lily, and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened and what we had to do to protect the public,” Whitworth-Mathes wrote in a message Friday.
The four-page manifesto allegedly included a “list of firearms and how to 3D print them,” “[d]etailed lists of numerous individuals named to be killed” and information “detailing the creation of improvised explosive devices,” the document states.
The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office revealed Wednesday it had charged Whitworth with two counts of criminal attempt to commit murder and one count each of criminal mischief, menacing and interference with staff, faculty or students of educational institutions.
A public defender appointed to represent Whitworth declined to comment when contacted by The Post Friday.
The Elbert County Sheriff’s Office received a call shortly after 7:15 p.m. March 31 from a woman who told a dispatcher her sister – Lilly Whitworth – had violently approached her, had made comments referencing a school shooting and had “threatened to shoot up a school,” the affidavit states.
Officers arrived and discovered holes that appeared to have been punched into the walls outside Whitworth’s bedroom. The bedroom door “was off its hinges and lying beside the opening.”
The affidavit describes how Whitworth – who later allegedly admitted to being drunk – was “very drowsy and could not stay awake.”
“I asked Lilly if she said she was going to shoot up a school and she visibly shook her head up and down indicating yes,” the responding officer wrote.
When asked why, Whitworth allegedly responded, “Why does anyone do it.”
Whitworth told police she last attended in-person schooling at Timberview Middle School in Colorado Springs, but had since been homeschooled.
“I asked Lilly what school she said she was going to shoot up and she placed her hand over her face,” the affidavit continues. “I stated Timberview was your last school and Lilly shook her head up and down indicating yes.
“I asked her how come that school and she stated, ‘No specific reason,’” the document alleges.
Police said Whitworth made suicidal statements, and said she did not know of any weapons in her home. The affidavit describes how police did not find any firearms in the house, but did see bottles of weapon cleaning liquid.
The officer said he asked Whitworth “how much she had been planning the school shooting,” to which she allegedly replied that she was “about a third of the way from doing it.”
She allegedly said she had being making her plans for roughly one to two months, and had drawn floor plans in notebooks and on a dry erase board.
Whitworth had also drawn “a clock to use as a detonation device” with further instructions, police said.
“Lilly verified that Timberview Middle school was one of the ‘main targets’ currently and other targets were churches,” the affidavit states.
“Lilly was asked what kind of planning she had done, and she stated layout of the school, active firearm planning and starting a manifesto.”
The manifesto, she described, “was four pages long and had schizophrenic rants on them,” the affidavit states. Asked if she was schizophrenic, she allegedly responded, “I hope not.”
When officers asked Whitworth what she knew about school shootings, she told them, “too much,” the affidavit goes on.
“I asked what she meant by too much and Lilly stated there’s a page in my manifesto and there’s a bunch of mass killers,” the document alleges.
Investigators searching the home also found a copy of Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto.”
Whitworth was ordered held on $75,000 bond as she awaits a May 5 court appearance.
