Possible School Shooting Stopped on Cape Cod

Police on Cape Cod say they may have prevented a school shooting after the arrest of 18-year-old Ian Fotheringham of Falmouth. According to the Cape and Islands District Attorney, the investigation into Fotheringham started back in August, when police received information that he allegedly said he wanted to “shoot up a school” and was “refurbishing firearms” in his room.

That last detail is worth paying attention to. While some reports threw the phrase out there like it was nonsense, refurbishing guns in a bedroom is entirely possible today. Investigators seized a large 3D printer from his home, and that matters. For all the hype about fully 3D-printed guns, anyone who actually knows how those things hold up understands they’re not stable, reliable weapons. Unless someone wants to lose a few fingers, most people use them for parts or modifications to existing firearms, not to crank out a complete plastic pistol. We just saw that play out in Pierce County, Washington, where a teen was arrested with 23 3D-printed guns. Those weren’t stockpiles of sturdy metal firearms; they were evidence of the way 3D printers are being leveraged to skirt the law by creating components and accessories.

In Fotheringham’s case, police didn’t find any illegal firearms during their searches, but what they did uncover was alarming enough. In early September, school safety monitors at Teaticket Elementary reported a suspicious man wandering in the woods behind the playground during fourth grade recess. That man was later identified as Fotheringham. Witnesses described him clutching his phone against his chest as if he was filming the area. Investigators say his phone also placed him at Mashpee High School on at least two occasions, though school wasn’t in session at the time.

Digging deeper, police uncovered even more. His home contained a notebook with references to the Columbine shooters, and his phone carried photos of the 1999 massacre. He had also sent a shooting video to a friend and made repeated references to killing people and animals. And, disturbingly, during a mental health inpatient program just weeks before his arrest, he reportedly told staff he wanted to join a white supremacy group and to ‘look the part’ by shaving his head, wearing a trench coat, and pulling on long black boots. That isn’t just idle talk; it’s a full-blown case of someone cosplaying Columbine, right down to the uniform.

The picture of his behavior goes back further than this summer. In 2024, while still a student at Falmouth High, he made direct threats to a peer specialist during inpatient care, sent a video of a shooting to a friend, and even searched Columbine on a school-issued Chromebook while enrolled at a program in Hingham. Police who visited his home at the time noted he was already building wooden models of futuristic firearms. Authorities say he also took antique firearm-making classes at school. By the time he was arrested on September 11 of this year, the escalation was hard to miss.

Fotheringham was arraigned the next day in Barnstable District Court on a charge of threatening to use a deadly weapon in a public building. He was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing.

What we’re left with is another Columbiner, or, if you want to be generous, another member of the so-called ‘true crime community’ who thinks mimicking long-dead losers gives them a sense of purpose. Instead, it gives us the same tired pattern of obsession with Columbine, white supremacy, and fantasies of mass violence.

People need to understand that when kids immerse themselves in this culture, it’s not harmless curiosity; it’s a red flag. Parents, schools, and peers should take note when someone starts idolizing Columbine, talking about trench coats and guns, or sharing violent videos. That kind of fixation doesn’t stay online forever. It has a way of bleeding into the real world, and ignoring it can mean missing the chance to stop the next tragedy before it starts.

Get them help, not a 3D printer.

(Sources)