Prosecutors: UCI Professor Searched For Guns, Fertilizer Online
NEWPORT BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A University of California Irvine professor accused of plotting attacks on an Irvine high school as revenge for his son's suicide was searching the Internet for tips, prosecutors said Wednesday.
KNX 1070's Jon Baird reports Rainer Reinscheid allegedly set the fires targeting his son's high school, the assistant principal's home, and the park where Reinscheid's son committed suicide in March.
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Reinscheid, a pharmaceutical sciences professor, now faces eight counts of arson and one count of attempted arson after writing emails outlining plans to attack University High School in Irvine.
Prosecutors said he also allegedly searched the Internet for information about guns, ammonium fertilizer and auto explosions before his arrest on arson charges.
Deputy District Attorney Andrew Katz said Reinscheid conducted 40 to 60 such Internet searches on his home computer since March, when his 14-year-old son committed suicide after being disciplined at school.
Katz asked the judge to keep Reinscheid locked up without bail.
"We believe that he poses a severe danger to the safety of the public; named individuals that he's targeted as well as unnamed individuals," Katz said.
Katz said the searches raised authorities' concerns that Reinscheid would follow through on the graphic emails that laid out plans to shoot students and administrators and burn down the school.
Reinscheid is due back in court next week.
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