Sheriff asking for RPO’s as new details are released in Harns Marsh shooting plot

We are learning more scary details about the plans from a stopped-school shooting plot at Harns Marsh Middle School. 14-year-old Phillip Byrd and 13-year-old Connor Pruett studied and analyzed the 1999 Columbine massacre as inspiration for their own plot.

In their mug shots and in their handcuffs Connor Pruett and Phillip Byrd look young, but sheriff’s deputies say they are old enough to plot a school shooting. And that is why the sheriff asked a judge to issue risk protection orders (RPO).

“An RPO has nothing to do with the purchase of firearms, it has everything to do with the possession of firearms,” said Douglas Rudman, a criminal defense attorney, and former Palm Beach County prosecutor.

According to Politifact, an RPO in the state of Florida, if granted by a judge, would allow for the judge to authorize a search at the home of the person it applies to. During that search firearms or ammunition would be temporarily secured.

In new court documents the RPO’s list Byrd and Pruett’s parents ‘on behalf’ of their children. Both Rudman and Pruett’s attorney told WINK News it is because the kids are minors.

The RPO’s in this case mean the boys are not able to touch a gun for the next year. Any guns the parents have, the parents can keep.

“We’re dealing with, we’re dealing with a constitutional protection. Okay, the second amendment,” said Rudman.

A photo found during the investigation showed Pruett’s father’s rifle.
The sheriff’s office said that the rifle was not taken by LCSO, but in executing a search warrant the Lee County Sheriff’s Office did collect other evidence.

From Pruett’s house deputies recovered An Xbox, Chromebook and B.B. gun.

From Byrd’s house, they recovered an unknown black firearm, rifle magazines and several knives.

“I mean, now the scary thing is, is what do you do with those knives? Can they get those knives back?” Said Rudman, who is no stranger to RPO’s which he said don’t cover knives.

Rudman also knows from experience that a judge does not grant every RPO request. “I’ve tried about five of these, and I’ve won two of them. And I can tell you at the end of the day. This is again, an example of how lessons that we learned from the Stoneman Douglas shooting, being applied properly, can actually avoid another tragedy.”

Court documents outline details of the teens’ plot: