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Florida teen's detailed plans to commit several mass killings unearthed in routine traffic stop, deputies say

By Dani Medina
Published  October 10, 2023 3:32pm EDT
Florida
FOX 35 Orlando

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - A Florida teen who was pulled over for a busted headlight was arrested after deputies found a multiple-page manifesto in his car, detailing plans to "kill everyone" at his high school, go on a "stabbing spree" at a church and murder his stepmom, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. 

Henry Horton IV was arrested and charged with written threats to kill or do bodily harm, arrest records show. Before the 19-year-old was taken into custody at the Main Detention Center, he was admitted for a mental health check. 

The Okeechobee High School graduate was pulled over Sept. 18 in the area of West Indiantown Road and Cortana Boulevard after his car was observed with its passenger headlight out, according to an affidavit. During the traffic stop, deputies conducted a search with Horton's consent which revealed a multiple-page, handwritten manifesto. 

Photo: Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office

Horton was allegedly plotting to kill an administrator at his former high school and 14 other people there. His plan continued with a "stabbing spree" at a church in Miami, where he told deputies he was on his way to at the time of the traffic stop, the affidavit said.

He added that he would want his attacks to be punctuated by being "killed by police or starve himself to death," deputies said. The teen said he was going to carry out his plans on his 22nd birthday, Jan. 2, 2026.

After Horton was discharged from the hospital, he admitted his plans to deputies, including the attack at a church in Miami. 

"I guess I just don't like religion," Horton told deputies, according to the affidavit. "I guess I just want to attack a bunch of random people."

Horton also allegedly did "recon" work at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School – the high school in Parkland where an 18-year-old gunman opened fire, killing 17 people in February 2018 – and planned a mass shooting at Okeechobee High School. 

"When questioned where he would get a gun from, he stated that he would go somewhere where people don't know him and buy a gun and bring it back home to do the attack," the affidavit said. 

Deputies said Horton's motive for the planned attacks stem from a disagreement with his stepmother, who reportedly kicked him out of their house in April. 

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He also said he did his research on his cell phone, which revealed several notes detailing other attacks and how he would execute them, the affidavit said. Some of the notes showed detailed plans of enlisting "other people that are as fanatical as me" to carry out "massacres" in other states, according to the affidavit. 

"So 1,120 people would die if this whole plan came to fruition," Horton wrote in his notes, deputies said. 

Also on his phone were notes on how to make a weapon of mass destruction, how to make a bomb and how much an AK-47 costs, deputies said. 

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"I want to kill other people. I want some of my family dead. I want my father to die. I want my stepmom to die as well. I'm not fine," Horton wrote in his notes app, deputies said. "I will perhaps never be fine again. I'll probably be like this for the rest of my life. I don't care. Just like I don't care about dying before 23."

Jail records show Horton remains in custody at the Main Detention Center on $1 million bond after his arrest on Oct. 5.