A Minnesota college student has been arrested and faces allegations that he planned to commit violent acts after police found a tactical vest and weapons in his dorm room.
Waylon Kurts, 20, is enrolled at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Campus safety was first alerted that Kurts may be a threat when custodial staff found empty packages of high-capacity magazines in the trash outside a set of dorm rooms.
When Kurts’s room was searched, authorities found a tactical vest, empty ammunition boxes, knives, fireworks, propane canisters, a lock-pick set, notes on public safety radio frequencies, and a hand-drawn map of a recreational building on campus, including entry and exit points.
Notebooks confiscated also included instructions on where to aim on the body when shooting people, plans for stealing ammunition from Walmart, and how to break down doors, according to the Rice County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police also found, through a search of Kurts’s cellphone, that he was sending texts looking into purchasing guns from unlicensed sellers.
Kurts has been charged with conspiracy to commit threats of violence, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and making terroristic threats.
On Friday prosecutors informed the judge that Kurts’s mother would be posting his bail and bringing him back to his home state of Vermont.
Prosecutors are asking Kurts’s family to turn over all of their firearms to Vermont police.
Police say there was evidence that Kurts may not have been acting alone. The investigation is ongoing.
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