michelle cossey

Mother arrested for allegedly helping teen assemble arsenal
We blogged yesterday about the 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy who had assembled an arsenal in his home who police say may have been planning an attack on a high school in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. Today, there are reports about one alleged source of the weapons: His mother.

Michele Cossey, 46, allegedly bought her son a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, the AP reported, quoting "authorities." The rifle had a laser scope, the AP reported. Police arrested her today.

You can read more details about today's arrest here.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A woman bought guns and bomb-making material to indulge her socially outcast 14-year-old son, a prosecutor said Friday.


Michele Cossey makes her way to the prosecutor's office, where she was served with an arrest warrant Friday.

1 of 2 Michele Cossey, 46, faces charges in connection with her son's alleged plan for a Columbine-like attack on a school. She is accused of buying him a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle, a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle and black powder used to make grenades.

"There's a lot of things at play here," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. said. "You have a child who is obviously emotionally disturbed and a social outcast, and no doubt the parents feel sorry for him and are indulging him.

"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen, obviously, and she has to be held accountable for that."

Cossey was charged Friday with unlawful transfer of a fiream, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment.

A search of the family's home Wednesday in Plymouth Meeting outside Philadelphia turned up the rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, grenades, a bomb-making book and videos of the 1999 Columbine High School attack, Castor said.

Castor said the weapons were plainly visible in the boy's bedroom.

"We alleged that she purchased the 9 mm rifle for her son, allowed him to have black powder, gunpowder and the instruments to make the grenades," Castor said.

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"I don't think she had anything to do with planning this attack, but by virtue of her indulgence she allowed him to get into this position."

During a hearing Friday in juvenile court, a judge ruled authorities could continue to hold the teen during their investigation.

The judge also ordered psychiatric and educational achievement evaluations for the youth, who withdrew from school in 2006 and was reportedly home-schooled.

The teen was charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts and was being held at a youth facility. If he is found delinquent, he could face long-term detention and counseling.

The boy was brought into court in handcuffs. At the end of the hearing, he blew a kiss to his mother and whispered, "I love you."

As Cossey sat sobbing in the courtroom, Castor walked over to her and informed her that he had a warrant for her arrest. He told her to go to his office on a lower floor of the courthouse, where the warrant was served.

The boy's father, Frank Cossey, also could face criminal charges pending an investigation, police said.

Police said Frank Cossey was sentenced to house arrest for failing to acknowledge a 1981 manslaughter conviction when he tried to buy a .22-caliber rifle for his son in 2005, The Associated Press reported.

School officials said police acted on a tip from a Plymouth Whitemarsh High School student and his father. They said they believe the tip was prompted by Wednesday's shooting at a Cleveland, Ohio, school in which a 14-year-old killed himself after wounding two teachers and two other students.

In a separate incidents in West Virginia, six teens have been arrested and charged with making terrorist threats at two high schools.

In Marion County, four students are suspected of involvement in attempting to set fires at Fairmont High School, and a fifth is accused of making unrelated threats against students and teachers, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said.

In Greenbrier County, a Greenbrier East High School student was arrested Thursday morning after students alerted police that he was making threats of a school shooting, said John Curry, county schools superintendent. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Catherine Clifford, David Mattingly, Diana Miller, Caleb Silver and Citabria Stevens contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Oct. 12 ― Police today arrested the mother of a boy who planned a "Columbine style" attack on his former school, saying she had provided him with an assault rifle.

The 14-year-old boy, who was arrested on Wednesday, remained in custody for psychiatric tests after a brief court appearance, according to new service reports.

Michele Cossey, 46, faces charges of providing a firearm to a minor and contributing to the corruption of a minor, police said. They added that she bought the laser-scope equipped rifle legally at a gun show and no ammunition was found in the home.

"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen and she needs to be held accountable," said Bruce L. Castor Jr., the Montgomery County district attorney, according to The Associated Press.

A search of the Cossey home yielded the rifle, dozens of authentic-looking BB guns and air guns, four hand grenades and three other grenades being built.

The boy, whose name was withheld because he is a minor, attended the middle school associated with Plymouth Whitemarsh High School until 18 months ago, when his parents began schooling him at home because he was being bullied by other students, the police said. He tried to recruit another onetime student at the school to join him in the attack, they said, and that former student alerted the police.

Officers searched the family's house with the consent of the boy's parents and, the authorities said, found notebooks detailing violent acts, an Army handbook on counterinsurgency operations and a DVD entitled "Game Over in Littleton," a documentary on the 1999 rampage in which two students at Columbine High School in Colorado shot to death 12 schoolmates and a teacher before committing suicide.

Mr. Castor said he did not believe an attack had been imminent.

"It could have simply been big talking," he said, "by a kid who thought that he was bullied previously, and he was going to exact his revenge."

Mr. Castor said he was considering whether to charge the boy as an adult. For now, he has been charged as a juvenile with various offenses including criminal attempt and possession of a criminal instrument, said Joseph Lawrence, deputy chief of the Plymouth Township Police Department. Mr. Lawrence declined to elaborate on the charges.

Jon Hurdle reported from Plymouth Meeting and Ian Urbina from Washington. Mike Nizza contributed reporting from New York.