A Democratic county executive in Maryland snapped at a reporter on Friday when pressed on his administration’s alleged concealment of the fact that a teen who was recently arrested for planning school shootings identified as transgender.
Montgomery County police arrested Andrea Ye, an 18-year-old woman who identifies as a man, after the FBI was made aware of a 129-page manifesto in which the teen allegedly wrote about carrying out mass shootings at Wootton High School, which she attended online, and Lakewood Elementary School. Ye contends the manifesto was a “memoir” and a work of fiction, according to ABC News.
“What is the reluctance of the county to admit that this individual was transgender?” a reporter asked Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich during a news conference on Friday. “This is the fourth time that we’ve seen this happen very recently.”
“Because it’s not a lede,” Elrich replied. “You know, how — do you publicize every time somebody gets murdered that it’s a white Christian male, who’s heterosexual? No, you don’t, you don’t — are these the only crimes that get committed? You never publish somebody’s sexual orientation when you talk about them.”
“Why are you focused 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,” he added.
The writing was about a transgender main character named James Wang who was “being bullied in school and other issues that [the witness] believed were directly from Ye’s life and not indicative of fiction,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News. The person who shared the manifesto with authorities reportedly received treatment at a psychiatric facility with Ye, who started receiving treatment in December 2022 after making alleged threats.
“I want to shoot up a school. I’ve been preparing for months. The gun is an AR-15. This gun is going to change lives tomorrow … As I walk through the hallways, I cherry pick the classrooms that are the easiest targets,” Ye allegedly wrote, according to WBAL-TV.
“I need to figure out how to sneak the gun in. I have contemplated making bombs. The instructions to make them are surprisingly available online. I have also considered shooting up my former elementary school because little kids make easier targets,” the manifesto says.
“High school’s the best target; I’m the most familiar with the layout. I pace around my room like an evil mastermind. I’ve put so much effort into this. My ultimate goal would be to set the world record for the most amount of kills in a shooting. If I have time, I’ll try to decapitate my victims with a knife to turn the injuries into deaths,” it adds.
Police also allegedly found concerning social-media posts and internet searches carried out by Ye, including searches for “gun range near me,” descriptions of an AR-15 and the phrase “But, I do recognize that my plan is fully unethical. It’s selfish and evil.”
While Ye is not accused of possessing any firearms at the time of her arrest, chat records allegedly show her saying her “homicidal ideation has been getting worse lately to the point I might act on it eventually.”
“I’d want to kill a lot of people or it wouldn’t be worth it,” she allegedly wrote in another message.