Tehama County Sheriff Office

For more than a decade, parents were inundated with unsubstantiated claims that violent video games influence children and teens to be violent.

Now, from California comes the story of exactly the opposite occurring. A teenage gamer, who routinely engages in virtual violence, took action to prevent violence from actually happening.

On May 11th, in Tehama County, members from the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit carried out a search warrant on two houses on Bowman Road and Lake California.

Inside, two juveniles aged 14 and 15 were found to be in possession of improvised explosive devices, guns, and a manifesto explaining the motives behind a yet-to-be-carried-out attack which in their minds killed one set of parents, and 100 people at Evergreen Middle School, in Cottonwood.

Now in juvenile detention awaiting formal prosecution, the media has been informed that the search warrants were approved based on the information provided by an as-yet unidentified teenage video gamer from Tennessee, who heard the imprisoned pair discussing their plot whilst playing computer games with them.

Along with their comments, the “hero” was able to receive a photo from the two teens in which they were dressed in the clothes of the Columbine High School shooters.

All of this was revealed in a press conference by Tehama County Sheriff Dave Kain, who took questions from the media before eventually inviting, and expressing his hope, that the young man would step forward and be acknowledged for his heroism.

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“In the end, I’d like to celebrate this young man—this particular young man out of Tennessee—this young hero, and focus the attention of this event on what it deserves to be: that this young man had the courage and heroic instincts to call our agency and notify us in order to mitigate any possible threat to our citizens, and particularly our young people,” Kain said.

“I think this is a good case of where it’s evident—if you see something, say something. And in this case, it worked.”

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In a letter addressed to the Evergreen school families, superintendent Brad Mendenhall said that county schools had become more secure in recent years with the addition of high fences, security cameras, constant monitoring, and limited points of entry.

Sheriff Kain expressed his confidence that the plot was entirely prevented, such that he told the press his own son returned to school on the day it reopened.

CELEBRATE This Hero Gamer’s Instincts And Maybe Share It With Teens You Know…