Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers announces no charges to be filed against adult in the Mariemont School shooting plan

Today, Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers announced that no charges will be filed against the adult who communicated with Juvenile A.B. as he planned to carry out a school shooting at Mariemont High School.

On February 8^th, Prosecutor Melissa Powers announced that the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office was seeking to try Juvenile A.B. as an adult for planning to murder multiple individuals at Mariemont High School. During the course of that investigation, it was determined that A.B. was conversing with an unknown individual about participating in the shooting. Investigation identified this unknown individual as a 36-year-old male who was, at all times during his interactions with A.B., residing in a Colorado group home. This individual has been a ward of the state since turning 18 due to cognitive issues and met A.B. while playing video games online.

As part of the investigation into this potential suspect, the individual’s phone and electronic devices were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and sent to Mariemont Police for review. Additionally, the Chief Assistant Prosecutor of the Juvenile Division as well as a Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office investigator (a former Cincinnati Police homicide detective with decades of experience) travelled to Colorado to conduct an in-person interview with this individual. Following a review of the evidence and interview, a determination was made that this individual had no means or ability to participate in Juvenile A.B.’s plan.



Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers stated: “The job of the Prosecutor is to seek justice, and in this case, it has become clear that justice would not be served by criminal charges against this individual. I want to thank the FBI, local authorities in Colorado and the Mariemont Police for their diligent work in this matter.