2 Students Charged With Explosion, Slaying Plot

Montgomery High School, Principal Were Allegedly Targeted

Two Montgomery County teenagers have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit murder in an alleged plot to kill the principal at their White Oak high school with a nail-filled bomb and then trigger a major explosion inside the school, authorities said yesterday.

The Springbrook High School students -- juniors ages 18 and 17 -- are suspected of having set three fires at the school, including one Tuesday before the discovery of the plot that led to their arrests, police said.

According to police, the students planned "in the near future" to throw the bomb into the principal's office, and then puncture a gas pipe in the school's auditorium and use an incendiary device to set off an explosion.

Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said investigators think the students "really had an intention of doing this."

"They were surely doing things that made one believe they were going to try," he said.

Over the past month, the students "constructed and experimented with several different incendiary devices," said Lt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman. They had also attempted to puncture pipes in the boys' locker room to determine whether they were gas lines, he said.

Police identified the teens as Yonata Getachew, 18, of the 11500 block of Sutherland Hill Way in White Oak and Anthony N. Torrence, 17, of the 13500 block of Greencastle Ridge Terrace in the Burtonsville area. Torrence has been charged as an adult.

Each is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree arson and other offenses. They are scheduled to appear in court for bond hearings today.

Acting on search warrants obtained Tuesday night, investigators searched both students' homes. They found flammable liquids and materials used to make "chemical reaction bombs," police said in a statement. They also found "notes and plans written by Getachew and Torrence about preparations and the physical design of the school building."

Other students at Springbrook, just north of Silver Spring, said in interviews that Getachew and Torrence kept a low profile.

"He's a quiet boy," senior Jared Mohammed, 18, said of Torrence.

Another 18-year-old senior, Yomi Kolawole, said of Torrence, "I didn't think he would do something like this."