Amanda Bowden of East Haven was arraigned Wednesday in state Superior Court on a charge of one count of false information and hoaxes, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
“As alleged, this defendant made a series of threats that described in great detail her intention to carry out a suicidal mass murder at a community college in New Haven,” U.S. Attorney David Fein said in a statement. “All threats of this nature will be viewed as serious by this office and prosecuted to the full extent of federal law.”
Prosecutors say Bowden made the threats this month, initially through text messaging with a cooperating witness and subsequently through texts and verbal conversations with an undercover law enforcement agent. They say Bowden claimed to possess firearms and to have constructed at least two napalm-based bombs at her residence.
Authorities say no firearms or explosive devices or related materials were found during a search of Bowden’s residence.
A criminal complaint reveals a number of troubling threats against Gateway Community College in New Haven, where she was not actually a student or affiliated with the school, according to college officials.
Bowden allegedly texted the cooperating witness Feb. 5, saying that she was “depressed” and that “shooting things is one of the few things I find fun,” according to the complaint.
Bowden then mentioned she was targeting “Gateway” and was “pissed when the sandy hook happened ... Cuz I wanted to be the next big one.”
The teen was referencing Lanza, the gunman who slaughtered 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December.
The complaint says Bowden had been planning for a couple of months to bomb and shoot up Gateway, and then kill herself.
“Ill shoot a cop,” she allegedly texted to the cooperating witness Feb. 7. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out how to get around them that’s why I want to bomb it first then go in hopefully wiping out some security.”
Bowden told investigators she was not actually planning any shooting or bombing but was seeking to be accepted by the people she was exchanging messages with, according to the affidavit. But authorities say that she admitted sending texts describing how she made napalm bombs and that she researched online how to make the explosives.
Phone calls were left with Bowden's federal public defender and at her home seeking comment.
She faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the federal charge, a felony offense.
