Army Soldier Charged With Killing 2 Plotted 1999 School Attack: Media Outlet

THERESA, NY — A U.S. Army soldier charged with killing his wife and a New York State Police trooper planned to shoot up his middle school as a teenager, court records indicated according to a news outlet in Michigan.

Justin Walters, then 15-year-old ninth-grader at the time, and a classmate were accused of compiling a "die or dead list" and planning to shoot people then kill themselves at Macatawa Bay Middle School in Holland, Michigan, MLive.com reported. A fellow classmate alerted police of the 1999 plot.

Walters pleaded guilty in family court to conspiracy to carry a dangerous weapon, according to the news outlet, which cited Grand Rapids Press reports. (For more Across America news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

New York authorities say the Zeeland, Michigan, native, now 32, fatally shot his wife, Nichole Walters, and Trooper Joel Davis on Sunday night at the Walters' home in Theresa, near Fort Drum in northern New York. He was charged with murder Monday. He was ordered jailed without bail at his arraignment. His lawyer wouldn't comment.

The Grand Rapids Press reported that police in the 1999 case said Walters told them he and his then-middle school accomplice wanted to get a gun so they could open fire in the school's cafeteria before turning the weapon on themselves.

The newspaper said Walters pleaded guilty to destruction of property after more than 100 tombstones were toppled at a cemetery in his hometown earlier in 1999.

Walters joined the Army in 2007 and was assigned to a combat brigade of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. Officials at the post said he's a staff sergeant who has served two combat tours in Afghanistan.

State police said Davis, 36, was responding to reports of shots fired on the Walters' rural property when he was shot. He died about an hour later at a hospital. Troopers said Nichole Walters was shot multiple times in the home's driveway.

Funeral arrangements are pending for Davis, who joined the state police in 2013 after a decade with the county sheriff's department.

I have directed that flags on all state government buildings be flown at half-staff until Trooper Joel R. Davis has been laid to rest.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 10, 2017

Photos credit: New York State Police via AP