Students who reported troubling Snapchat messages thwarted a potential mass shooting at a Florida campus, officials say

John Hagins, 19, threatened an attack similar to the 1999 mass shooting at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, that left 13 dead, according to Chief Jakari Young of the Daytona Beach Police Department. Hagins had a backpack that contained a collapsible rifle, a magazine and several boxes of ammunition when he was taken into custody, he said.

“It was a Snapchat group message that they were involved in, and they were very concerned about what was being relayed in this Snapchat group chat,” Young said at a news conference Thursday.

Hagins made his first court appearance Friday and a judged ruled he be held without bond. The judge granted a request for a public defender to be appointed to Hagins and said a hearing would be held by Wednesday regarding his incarceration.

CNN reached out to Hagin’s appointed public defender but did not receive a response.

A friend of Hagins told police that Hagins last week “began talking excessively about purchasing a gun” that would fold and fit in his backpack so he could take it to “the school and ‘shoot it up,'” according to a charging affidavit.

The friend told police that Hagins sold his truck and used the money to purchase a gun, the arrest affidavit stated.

The friend said they were “more concerned” at that point because Hagins had previously expressed “ambitions about fixing up” the truck, according to the charging document.

Hagins had approximately 800 rounds of ammunition, according to the affidavit.

The friend, according to the affidavit, told police that Hagins showed them the gun and said, “I finished my back-to-school shopping.”

According to the affidavit, Hagins said “he would purchase a silencer so he would be able to shoot inside the school library.”

Hagins is charged with one count each of terrorism, written threat to kill or injure and attempted first-degree…