Man who bought AR-15, planned to attack Kentucky high school is sentenced to 10 years
A Lawrenceburg man who pleaded guilty to planning a school shooting in Kentucky has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Dylan Lee Jarrell was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in November to threatening two individuals over social media, illegally possessing a firearm “in furtherance” of one of those threats and lying to the FBI during an investigation, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Jarrell confessed to planning the school shooting because of “perceived personal grievances and as a political statement,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Jarrell also told investigators about how he’d fixated on a female hip-hop artist and planned to kill her at a Kentucky concert in 2018 before “events in his life” caused him to turn to more imminent plans of violence against Shelby County High School.
During the investigation, law enforcement found a draft of a message on Jarrell’s phone that he planned to send to media about the attack, according to the memorandum.
In a separate sentencing memorandum, Jarrell’s defense attorney wrote that his client had long struggled with mental illness and alcohol abuse disorder and his plans were “weak at best, and did not indicate a truly malicious disposition.”
The investigation into Jarrell began in May of 2018 when he made posts on an anonymous Reddit account about planning a school shooting, according to the release. FBI investigators visited and questioned Jarrell.
When he was questioned, Jarrell lied about his “internet activities,” and over the following months, he bought an AR-15, a bump stock, high capacity magazines, ammunition and body armor, according to the release.
Jarrell intended to use the items to attack Shelby County High School, according to the release. He was also accused of threatening an individual on Sept. 24, 2018, over Instagram and sending “racially motivated” messages to harass New Jersey mom Koeberle Bull on Facebook on Oct. 17, 2018.
Bull contacted police when she received a threatening message from Jarrell.
Bull previously said her first instinct was to protect her three children when Jarrell made racist remarks about them via Facebook. She contacted New Jersey police and Kentucky State Police when she found out Jarrell lived in Lawrenceburg.
In the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum, they credited a tip from the victim of the Facebook threat for helping law enforcement stop an attack.
On Oct. 18, 2018, federal and state law enforcement searched Jarrell’s cell phone and other belongings, leading to the discovery of his plans to attack the high school and the individual he threatened on Instagram, according to the release. He was charged on Oct. 26, 2018.
“Halted by the work of dedicated law enforcement professionals who confronted and stopped him, Dylan Jarrell was intent on committing horrific acts of violence on innocent people,” said Robert M. Duncan, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “The investigation conducted by KSP and FBI personnel almost certainly saved lives. The seriousness of Jarrell’s crimes and the danger he presented to the public certainly justify the sentence he received.”
Jarrell will serve at least 85 percent of his sentence by federal law and will be under supervision for five years upon his release.
“Nothing is more paramount to our agency than the safety of Kentucky’s children,” Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer said in the release. “We hope this sends a strong message to anyone who would contemplate a harmful act in one of our schools.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 5:49 PM.
