Police: Teen arrested at Indiana high school had 10 knives strapped to his body

Douglas Walker | The Star Press

MUNCIE, Ind. – A Muncie teenager was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon after he was found at Central High School with “ten knives strapped to his body,” police say.

Thomas Lon Owens III, 18, was arrested and charged with trespassing and 10 counts of possession of a knife on school property.

Owens’ apprehension – by Brandon Qualls, a city police officer who is also Central’s school resource officer – came about 3:20 p.m., shortly after students had been dismissed for the day.

Qualls had been told that a “white male was wandering the school halls and had been trespassed from the school before.”

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Owens maintained he had “no intention of hurting anyone at the school,” city police investigator Kyle Monroe wrote in an affidavit.

The teen “said he always wears his leather jacket in summer months and always carries several knives,” the officer added.

Owens acknowledged he had earlier been told not to return to the high school. He said he had not been a student at any city school “for a few years.”

The teen said he had been involved in a Facebook conversation with a Central student, and came there at the end of the school day intending to “hang out” with that friend.

After he didn’t immediately see that student, Owens told investigators, “he began wandering the halls.”

Qualls found the teen outside of the school, and “noted a knife sheath sticking out from the suspect’s coat,” a report indicated.

The teen was found to have the 10 knifes “strapped to his body in different positions that were concealed by his leather coat,” the document said, along with “a set of lock picks.”

According to Monroe’s report, Owens’ mother confirmed he “always wears that coat in the summer and carries numerous knives.”

The teen also allowed officers to review his cellphone and Facebook activity. Authorities confirmed his account of Facebook contact on Wednesday with the Central student, and found “no evidence of radicalization or searches for mass shootings/stabbings.”

The trespassing charge preliminarily filed against Owens is a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail. The knife-related charges are Class B misdemeanors with maximum 180-day jail sentences.

Owens was being held under a $12,500 bond.