Another Indiana TCC Teen Charged in School Shooting Plot

Shelby County, Indiana, nearly became the next stop on the Columbine nostalgia tour.

According to multiple court filings and media reports, 17-year-old Alexis Pickett was arrested and charged as an adult for allegedly plotting a mass shooting at Morristown Jr./Sr. High School. Prosecutors say she planned to kill as many people as possible before killing herself, with a target date of May 25, 2026. She now faces charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and intimidation and is being held on a one million dollar cash bond.

Her next major court date is set for April 20th.

Yes. That April 20th.

If you know anything about Columbiners, you already know why that date matters and why it is going to light up certain corners of the internet like a shrine candle.

A Columbiner is not just someone who reads about school shootings. It is someone who idolizes the Columbine cowards, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, adopts their mythology, internalizes the bullying myth, and treats mass murder as a form of identity, grievance expression, or legacy building.

These days, many Columbiners have rebranded themselves as members of the “True Crime Community” or TCC. Same obsession, new label. Court documents and reporting say Pickett was deeply embedded in this world, communicating on Discord, Telegram, and TikTok, sharing references to Columbine, collecting images of Harris and Klebold, and even drawing them.

She reportedly dressed as a school shooter for Halloween, specifically mimicking a character from the Columbine-inspired movie Zero Day. That is not edgy costuming. That is textbook Columbiner behavior.

Police also say Pickett recorded video inside Morristown High School, mapping entrances, hallways, and key areas, and shared it with an alleged co-conspirator so they would know how to get in and out of the building.

This is not subtle. This is not ironic. This is not accidental.

Pickett has been charged as an adult, a decision prosecutors justified by the severity of the allegations and the level of planning involved. She has pleaded not guilty.

Investigators say she admitted that if authorities had not intervened, she would have killed people and then herself.

That statement alone is enough to ensure this case will follow her for the rest of her life.

This case began because Pickett’s parents went to law enforcement. They reported warning signs and feared their daughter might hurt herself or others.

I want to be clear about something I have said before and will keep saying. I am not against parents going to police when their Columbiner kids cross a line.

But to me, that line is crossed when the suspect has access to a gun.

Whether there were firearms in the home is not something I have been able to definitively ascertain from the reporting. Prosecutors say Pickett discussed using family firearms, but it is not clear what access she actually had at the time her parents contacted authorities.

We also do not know what happened before the parents went to police. I sincerely hope they did not go to law enforcement first. I hope they attempted mental health intervention. Therapy. Crisis services. Anything other than handing a deeply troubled teenager directly to a system that has exactly one tool.

Police are trained to arrest. They are not therapists. They are not counselors. They are not advice columnists. Once you bring cops in, the outcome is almost always handcuffs, charges, and a permanent criminal record.

Sometimes that is necessary. Sometimes it is the only option. But it should never be the first one.

Pickett allegedly communicated with a 19-year-old female romantic partner in Ohio who encouraged her and discussed the plan. Because that person is 19, this does not appear, as far as we know, to be a grooming situation.

That distinction matters.

Grooming absolutely exists within the Columbiner and TCC ecosystems. We have seen it before, including cases like the dynamic between Damien Blade Allen and Natalie Rupnow. Older participants can and do normalize violence, reinforce grievance narratives, and push younger people further down the rabbit hole.

Based on what has been reported so far, this case does not appear to fit that pattern.

Pickett also allegedly planned the attack with someone named “Nathan,” identified as a 17-year-old in Mississippi. At least one media outlet made sure to highlight that Nathan is transgender.

So far, right-wing media has not seized on that detail with their usual transphobic hysteria, as far as I know. Give it time. Or maybe they are too busy pretending this problem does not live in their own ideological backyard.

Pickett reportedly told investigators she had been abused for years and used ‘true crime’ as a coping mechanism. That raises the question no one seems eager to answer.

Abused by whom?

Was the abuse happening at school, at home, or both?

It also appears Pickett may be queer. That matters because the TCC is filled with queer adolescents who have been marginalized, bullied, or isolated. When queer kids are treated as disposable, dangerous, or sinful, some of them internalize the Columbine myth. They start believing the lie that Harris and Klebold were righteous avengers instead of cowardly mass murderers who killed innocent people.

That mythology is a cancer. And it thrives in environments where kids feel unseen, unsupported, or outright rejected.

Some coverage has compared this case to Trinity Shockley, another Indiana Columbiner who plotted a school attack. In Shockley’s case, her father reportedly refused to get her mental health treatment when she asked for it.

I cannot help but wonder if something similar happened here.

This case is going to be framed as a success story. A vigilant parent. Swift police action. A tragedy prevented.

And yes, people are alive today who might not be otherwise.

But it is also another reminder that we keep encountering Columbiners at the point of criminalization rather than prevention. We keep responding once the obsession has hardened, the planning has advanced, and the legal system is the only remaining option.

April 20th is coming. The Columbiners will notice. They always do.

The rest of us should be asking why we keep meeting these kids at the jailhouse door instead of long before they ever start filming hallways and idolizing dead mass murderers.

(Sources)