State police arrested two high school sophomores over the Halloween costumes they wore off-campus after their actions were deemed a threat at Litchfield High School on Sunday, police said. (Published Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015) 
 
 A western Connecticut high school is trying to expel two students who are accused of dressing up as the Columbine shooters for Halloween and making threats of "bodily harm" to other students. 
 
 State police arrested the two Litchfield High School sophomores after school officials reached out to them. 
 
 "The costume was essentially black trench coats, baseball caps, and sunglasses," Litchfield Superintendent Lynn K. McMullin said. "This is the times we're living in, and we would be inhuman if it didn't put us on edge." 
 
 David Moraghan, who is representing one of the students, told the New York Times that the incident happened on the town green and a group walked up to the boys and said they looked like the Columbine High School shooters, then someone commented, "I bet you're going to shoot up the school." 
 
 “There was a sarcastic response to that, and that was basically the end of it,” said Moraghan, who also told the Times that one girl told her parents and that led to the call to police. 
 
 According to state police, troopers from the Troop L barracks in Litchfield responded to the high school on Sunday to investigate a report from McMullin about a "threat of a possible hostile event" happening at the high school Nov. 2. 
 
 Faculty heard the information from "people concerned about safety," state police said. 
 
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 As police investigated, they identified the two sophomores as suspects and learned after interviewing the suspects and witnesses that the teens made "threats of bodily harm to other students at Litchfield High School," according to police. 
 
 McMullin stressed the importance of safety at district schools in a letter to the high school community. 
 
 "Throughout the past three days, the state police and the district have remained in close contact as their full investigation took place," McMullin said. "At every stage of the investigation, we were reassured by the troopers that there was no evidence of any credible threat that would necessitate any change in our regular daily practices. Nevertheless, at every stage, we took the matter very seriously." 
 
 Message from the school went on to affirm that there was never a credible threat. 
 
 A spokesperson for the superintendent said the school district has begin the expulsion hearing process. 
 
 Troopers took the juveniles into custody on Nov. 4 and transported them to juvenile detention, charging them with inciting injury to persons or property and breach of peace. 
 
 State police said that while there was no evidence of any credible threat in the incident, they take all threats, particularly ones at schools, "very seriously." Investigators remind residents to remain vigilant and notify police about any suspicious activity. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 LITCHFIELD, Conn. — Questions about when a menacing costume verges on a criminal threat swirled around this rural town after two high school sophomores were arrested and accused this week of dressing as the Columbine killers for Halloween and threatening to hurt other students. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The allegations, coming in an age of heightened awareness of mass shootings, landed with particular force in a town that, like many in western Connecticut, is still on edge three years after the massacre at the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School. 
 
 The students got word on Thursday that the Litchfield Public Schools would seek to expel them, one of the boys’ lawyers, David Moraghan, said. 
 
 The students, whose names have not been released because they are juveniles, also appeared in court on charges of inciting injury to persons or property, a felony, and breach of peace, a misdemeanor. They were released to their parents after the hearing on Thursday, a day after they were charged and sent to a juvenile detention center. 
 
 The State Police said the boys made “threats of bodily harm to other students,” and the Litchfield Public Schools superintendent said they went out for Halloween on Saturday night dressed in trench coats and sunglasses. But officials have declined to offer any additional details behind the charges, spawning rumors among parents and residents about what really happened on Saturday night. 
 
 Mr. Moraghan offered the first detailed account on Thursday of how an ill-advised costume turned into criminal charges. 
 
 He said that on Saturday night, the boys went to a Halloween party on the town green that draws students from several schools who want to trick-or-treat and hang out with friends. He acknowledged they were dressed in distasteful costumes but said they did not have “any object that can be used or perceived as a weapon.” 
 
 A group walked up to them, according to Mr. Moraghan’s account, and after commenting that they looked like the Columbine High School killers, someone added, “I bet you’re going to shoot up the school.” 
 
 Mr. Moraghan said, “There was a sarcastic response to that, and that was basically the end of it.” He said one girl told her parents, who then called the police. Investigators, in turn, searched the students’ cellphones and their homes, he said. 
 
 The State Police confirmed the home search, but declined to answer questions about what they found. Mr. Moraghan said, “Nothing was found in either boy’s home that could in any way give credence to what they claim the boys were going to do.” 
 
 Prosecutors declined to answer questions about the case because the defendants were juveniles. 
 
 The Litchfield Public Schools superintendent, Lynn K. McMullin, said in an email on Wednesday that “there was no credible threat and students were never in physical danger.” She did not respond to a message left for her on Thursday. 
 
 The boys did not face any weapons charges. 
 
 Some residents here said the costumes played on widespread fears in a town that is less than an hour from Newtown, where the elementary school massacre in 2012 took place, even if the costumes were only a hollow threat. 
 
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 “Any threat made in Connecticut is taken very seriously because of what happened here,” said James O’Shea, a longtime resident and co-owner of West Street Grill, which overlooks the town green. “You can’t joke about something so lethal. The loss of children and the devastation for the parents — it just destroys the community and whole state.” 
 
 Others said that if the boys did not intend to execute a threat of violence, there were better ways to handle the situation. 
 
 “It’s a prank,” Joe Radano said. “They shouldn’t be charged with a felony. You’re going to ruin a kid’s life? Now everyone is going to look down on them. This is a small community.” 
 
 Opinions about the arrests were sometimes mixed within the same families. 
 
 Jared Guilmart, a freshman at Litchfield High School, stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts with his mother, Deb Guilmart, after school. “I think it was stupid,” Jared said, referring to the costumes, but he added that he thought the charges were justified. 
 
 Ms. Guilmart was not so sure. “I don’t honestly know all the facts but I think it was overblown,” she said. “The school sent us a text and an email and I was like, ‘Holy cow.’ This is Litchfield.” 
 
 A lawyer for the second boy declined to comment on the case. One of the boys’ fathers, reached at the family’s home, said, “I’m sorry, I really have nothing to say.” 
 
 Mr. Moraghan said: “There was no risk of anyone being injured, assaulted or harmed. I think it was a very bad Halloween costume two kids thought of that they never thought of the consequences.” 
 
 He added that “both boys are so remorseful for their stupidity,” and said he worried the looming expulsion “is going to be really, really hard on both of them.”
– A bad-enough costume can ruin your life, not just your Halloween, two high school students in Connecticut have discovered. The teenagers were arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center this week after authorities found out they had gone out for Halloween dressed as the Columbine school shooters and allegedly threatened other students in the small town of Litchfield, the New York Times reports. The local school superintendent says school officials contacted police when they were informed about the pair. "The costume was essentially black trench coats, baseball caps, and sunglasses," she tells NBC Connecticut, adding that there was never any evidence of a credible threat. The boys, who will likely be expelled from school, were charged with inciting injury to persons or property, which is a felony, as well as breaching the peace, NBC reports. Dressing up as school shooters was definitely a terrible idea, especially in a town less than an hour from the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, a lawyer for one of the teens admits, but he tells the Times that the boys didn't have anything that could be perceived as a weapon, and the "threat" was a sarcastic remark made after someone told them, "I bet you're going to shoot up the the school." He says the boys are "so remorseful for their stupidity" and getting kicked out of school "is going to be really, really hard on both of them." (A soldier at Fort Bragg dressed up as a suicide bomber for Halloween.)