How police, FBI traced alleged school shooting threat to a Kennewick home

Two companies helped law enforcement as they raced to identify the person who was responsible for a TikTok post that they suspected showed a shooting being plotted at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, according to information in court documents.

The investigation started with a phone call about 1:20 a.m. on Saturday Sept. 20 from a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent to Kennewick police, according to documents filed in Benton County Superior Court.

FBI agents on the East Coast had received information from a person living in Florida, who has not been publicly identified, about a map of the interior of an unnamed school that was posted to TikTok as a 5-second video. The FBI was able to match the layout and room numbers to Kamiakin High, according to court documents.

The FBI contacted the internet provider for information about the IP, or internet protocol, address associated with the TikTok post.

But xyTel, a small business providing internet service, could only narrow the IP address to 36 residences in the Badger Canyon area of Kennewick.

The TikTok user name posted with the video was @waffenblud, but the video had been deleted or taken down by TikTok. In German, “waffen” means weapons and “blut” means blood, according to the court document.

The map shown in the video was color-coded to indicate an area to “gear up,” “potential targets,” “targets” and the exit. It also pointed out glass, apparently referring to the windows of the library, and an area to be wary of where the Kennewick Police Department school resource officer and other security workers had their offices.

On the video comment section one TikTok user asked if a shooting of a school was planned.

Waffenblud responded by “liking” the comment.

Law enforcement took the post to indicate that waffenblud was familiar with Kamiakin and was plotting a school shooting there.

Waffenblud was following just two other TikTok accounts, one of them about a 2024 school shooting in Georgia that resulted in the deaths of two students and two teachers.

While the exact time the video was posted to TikTok was not immediately known, the comments of those who posted indicated it likely was late night on Friday, Sept. 20.

Racing to find Kennewick address

As law enforcement said in court documents, that was less than 72 hours before the next school day at Kamiakin.

Verizon also was contacted by law enforcement to identify the mobile device and street address assigned to a second IP address associated with the waffenblud account.

But Verizon was only able to narrow the IP address to about 46 phone numbers.

Law enforcement was able to shrink that to 23 phone numbers based on the times at which the TikTok account accessed the IP address.

Using law enforcement databases, the phone numbers were matched with names. The internet provider then was able to match one of those names associated with a xyTel customer living in the Badger Canyon area of Kennewick.

The address was home to Mason Bently-Ray Ashby, 14, according to court documents.

He was familiar to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office after the FBI had contacted deputies in July about online threats it said Ashby had made.

Ashby had begun threatening his online girlfriend with photos of a loaded handgun and making statement about being “backed into a corner” and “forced with one choice,” according to information from an FBI report included in court documents.

One of his social media usernames at that time was adapted from the name of a school mass shooter in Finland in 2007, according to the FBI report.

It’s not clear from court documents how that incident was resolved.

Guns, school map seized

Just before 8 p.m. Saturday Sept. 20 Kennewick police and other law enforcement served a search warrant at the house where Ashby lived in the custody of his grandparents and arrested Ashby.

They seized 24 guns, an iPhone used by Ashby, documents pertaining to a shooting or planning a shooting in Ashby’s bedroom, and a laptop and a desktop computer used by Ashby, according to court documents.

One of the documents seized was similar to the map in the TikTok video, but this map had notations about shooting through windows and the time when most students would be present.

After police obtained a search warrant for Ashby’s iPhone, they found videos of Ashby at an open gun safe at his house, according to court documents.

The phone also held dozens of photographs Ashby had taken of himself at his house holding guns and videos of him pointing, unloading and loading guns, according to court documents. He handled at least 11 of the guns, they said.

The phone also had a text message on Sept. 20 with Ashby asking a friend, who would later be arrested in the case, if Ashby should purchase a semiautomatic rifle, according to court documents.

Other evidence included a video of Ashby walking around the Kamiakin campus and saying that the glass windows and structure of the library could be shot through, according to court documents. A search history showed research into whether buckshot rounds could penetrate glass, as well as information about tactical gear.

Missing handgun

A screenshot that was deleted about 7 p.m. Sept 20, about 45 minutes before the search warrant of Ashby’s home was executed, had the beginning of a manifesto, according to court documents.

“Hey, you found my manifesto I am sure you will all be laughing at me by the time you figure out who I am and why I did what I did …,” it said. “I’m sure my Discord and other social media will be released nearly instantly after the massacre.”

The manifesto said he had sent photos to friends and, “Hell, maybe, I’ll even record the attack and send it to a select few.”

The manifesto also described looking at smudged numbers on his grandfather’s gun safe to figure out the four-digit code to unlock it, according to court documents.

His grandfather had told police Ashby did not have access to guns in locked safes.

His grandparents reported to police on Tuesday Sept. 23, after studying the log of handguns seized, that one handgun that had not been seized was missing from their home.

Kennewick police were able to trace it to Kamiakin student Dylan Charles Carpenter, 14, who had sent a text to another friend describing how and where he disposed of it on Tuesday Sept. 23. He scattered the gun, a magazine and ammunition near Columbia Center mall.

Carpenter did not have knowledge of Ashby’s alleged plan for a school shooting before Ashby was arrested, said attorneys during a hearing in Benton County Juvenile Court.

Carpenter pleaded guilty Oct. 1 to illegal gun possession, tampering with evidence and making a false statement to police. He was sentenced to 40 days in juvenile detention and a year of probation.

Kennewick school safety summit

Ashby pleaded innocent Oct. 1 in Benton County Juvenile Court to a charge of attempted murder with a gun involved, 11 counts of second-degree possession of handguns and a threat to harm property.

He is too young to be tried as an adult on those charges. As a juvenile his maximum sentence if found guilty is incarceration until he is 21.

His bail is set at $1 million.

The Kennewick School District plans a safety summit at 6 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 7 at the Kamiakin High School Library, 600 N. Arthur St., with an open, moderated discussion on school safety.

Participants will hear from district leaders and safety partners and may submit questions in advance at bit.ly/4o4WJxW.