Ashley Pardo allegedly knew her middle school son was planning “mass targeted violence” when she bought ammunition and tactical gear for him. In exchange, he babysat his siblings.
The boy’s grandmother contacted police on May 12 after finding fully loaded magazines and an improvised explosive device in the boy’s room. She found the boy hammering a bullet that morning. When she asked him where he got the bullet, he said his mom took him to the store to buy it and get other gear.
That same day, Pardo dropped her son off at school in a camouflage jacket, mask, and tactical pants, but he left campus soon after.
Ashley, 33, faces terrorism charges.
Before that, Pardo “expressed to the school her support of [her son’s] violent expressions and drawings” and said that she “does not feel concerned for his behavior,” according to an affidavit.
Just a few hours after her son arrived at school in tactical gear on May 12, officers with the San Antonio Police Department arrested Pardo on a charge of aiding in the commission of terrorism.
The grandmother found a note the boy left on the kitchen table, which had the names of “persons who have committed targeted mass violence shootings” and the “number of victims from each shooting.”
The boy’s concerning behavior had previously been flagged, according to the affidavit, which cites an incident in January when administrators discovered “drawings” he had done of the school in which he identified a “suicide route.”
In a meeting to discuss these drawings, the boy allegedly spoke about his “fascination with past mass shooters” and their “manifestos,” per the affidavit.
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