A Texas woman was charged with buying ammunition and tactical gear for her 13-year-old son, who police and school officials feared could carry out mass violence at his middle school, authorities said Thursday.
The boy, who had been suspended in April for allegedly researching mass shootings at school, was also arrested and charged with terrorism, San Antonio police said.
The case may be the first in the United States in which a parent has faced serious charges before their child has committed violence, said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at the gun-control organization Everytown for Gun Safety.
Ashley Pardo, 33, was arrested Monday on a felony charge of aiding in the commission of terrorism. The 13-year-old, who was placed in a juvenile detention facility, was also charged with having an improvised explosive device, which police said they found at his house.
The arrests came after the boy’s grandmother found the ammunition and tipped off police Monday. The same morning, the boy showed up to school in camouflage and tactical-style clothing but then left campus. As police searched for him, authorities arrested Pardo.
Police then took the 13-year-old into custody on the belief he may have been “planning some act of violence,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters Thursday. He said it was unknown whether the boy was armed when he went to school Monday.
No attorney was listed for Pardo in court records Thursday. She was released on bond, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said. An attempt to reach her by phone was unsuccessful.
Prosecutors across the country have moved to hold parents responsible when their children commit mass killings, hoping it could move parents to restrict kids’ access to their firearms. Last year, the parents of a school shooter in Michigan were sentenced to prison in
cases that set a new legal precedent.
Pardo’s case could also set a new example for the prosecution of parents as a tool for preventing violence. “This one stands out for such utter disregard for warning signs that it begs for criminal charges to be brought, even if, thankfully, a major tragedy was avoided here,” Suplina said.
The U.S. saw 30 mass killings in which four or more people died in 2024, according to a Washington Post
count, and four have occurred so far this year.
Pardo’s arrest appeared to be the culmination of weeks of concern from authorities and school officials about her son’s behavior.
In January, the boy drew a map of his school that concerned law enforcement and expressed to authorities a fascination with previous mass shooters, according to the affidavit filed in Pardo’s arrest. In April, he was found to be researching the 2019 mass killings in Christchurch, New Zealand, on a school-issued computer and was suspended, after which he attempted suicide, the affidavit said.
He was sent to an alternative school until last week, when he returned to Jeremiah Rhodes Middle School. He had served the mandated time in the alternative center, police told reporters, and legally had to return to his school.
A few days later, his grandmother reportedly found him hitting a bullet with a hammer, and he told her his mother had given him the ammunition, the affidavit said.
His grandmother told authorities that Pardo had taken the boy to buy firearm magazines, tactical gear and military clothing. Pardo allegedly purchased the goods for him in exchange for his babysitting his younger siblings, the affidavit said.
On Monday, the boy told his grandmother he was “going to be famous” before going to school, and he made reference to white-supremacist writings, according to authorities. The grandmother searched his bedroom and found loaded magazines, a homemade explosive device that had been labeled with the name of the New Zealand shooter, and a note written by the boy that listed shooters’ names and the number of people they killed, the affidavit said.
The grandmother contacted the police, who had previously been in touch with the family about the boy’s behavior. Police found “very disturbing things” in the house where Pardo and her son lived, which were “an indication to us that we needed to move very quickly,” McManus said.
In charging Pardo, authorities said they believed she was “facilitating” her son’s “desire to carry out his threats” and said she had “expressed to the school her support” of her son’s “violent expressions.”
“She appeared to be dismissive and unconcerned with her son’s behavior,” McManus told reporters.
Gun-control advocates have pushed for parents to be held responsible when children access their guns or they ignore warning signs displayed by their children — and last year, for the first time, two juries in the Michigan cases
determined that a shooter’s family could bear some fault for an attack.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the Oxford High School shooter who killed four students in 2021,
were each convicted on involuntary manslaughter charges and sentenced to prison in April 2024. Advocates said then that they hoped the convictions would make other gun-owning parents more careful about locking up their firearms.
In September 2024, another father, Colin Gray, was indicted on the
most severe charges yet filed against the parent of an alleged school shooter. Gray’s son was charged with killing four people in a shooting at
Apalachee High School in Georgia. Gray was later charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children for allegedly allowing his son to possess an AR-15-style rifle. He has pleaded not guilty.
In another ongoing case, Jeffrey Rupnow, the father of a Wisconsin teen who killed two people at a private school,
has been charged for allowing his daughter to access weapons. He was released on a $20,000 bond this week, court records show, and has not entered a plea.
Gun-control groups have also pushed for websites to restrict content related to mass shooters that they say can radicalize young people and lead them to become fascinated with violence. Last year, a
report by Everytown and Moonshot, a group focused on online threats, found that content glorifying mass shootings is easily accessible on sites such as YouTube and Reddit, and that the content may play a role in radicalizing young people who become interested in attackers and killings.
Suplina, of Everytown, recommended parents monitor their children’s online activity and ensure they don’t have access to weapons.
McManus, the police chief, also urged the public to report concerns to law enforcement, saying speaking up can prevent violence.
“Most attackers show warning signs — obsessive interest in past violence, graphic fantasies, weapons stockpiling or violent writings. These signs must be reported,” he said. “That’s exactly what happened on Monday. A family member spoke up, and within hours, law enforcement responded.”