Jared Cano, 17, center, is led out of the courtroom in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011after being charged with possession of bomb-making materials in connection with a plot for an attack at Freedom High School on the first day of school. He was arrested Tuesday night, after a confidential informant told Tampa police the teen was planning to blow up Freedom High School on the first day of class. Cano, an expelled student, faces felony charges of possessing bomb-making materials, cultivating marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possessing of marijuana and threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. (AP Photo/St. Petersburg Times, Cherie Diez) TAMPA OUT, USA TODAY OUT, HERNANDO TODAY OUT,CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE OUT, NO MAGS, NO SALES
Jared Cano, 17, center, is led out of the courtroom in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011after being charged with possession of bomb-making materials in connection with a plot for an attack at Freedom High School on the first day of school. He was arrested Tuesday night, after a confidential informant told Tampa police the teen was planning to blow up Freedom High School on the first day of class. Cano, an expelled student, faces felony charges of possessing bomb-making materials, cultivating marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possessing of marijuana and threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. (AP Photo/St. Petersburg Times, Cherie Diez) TAMPA OUT, USA TODAY OUT, HERNANDO TODAY OUT,CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE OUT, NO MAGS, NO SALES
The facade of Freedom High School in Tampa, Fla. is seen on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011. A 17-year-old student has been arrested on charges he plotted to set off explosives at Freedom High Schoo on the first day of classes next week. Jared Michael Cano, 17, has been charged with threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. Cano also faces additional charges of possession of bomb-making materials, cultivation of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana. The suspect was arrested Tuesday night after someone alerted police to the alleged plot. (AP Photo/Tampa Tribune, David Kraut)
In a 2009 photo, a sign stands outside of Freedom High School in Tampa, Fla. Expelled student Jared Cano, 17, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011with possession of bomb-making materials in connection with a plot for an attack at Freedom High School on the first day of school. He was arrested Tuesday night, after a confidential informant told Tampa police the teen was planning to blow up Freedom High School on the first day of class. Cano, an expelled student, faces felony charges of possessing bomb-making materials, cultivating marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possessing of marijuana and threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. [AP Photo/St. Petersburg Times, Willie J. Allen, Jr.) TAMPA OUT, USA TODAY OUT, HERNANDO TODAY OUT,CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE OUT, NO MAGS, NO SALES
Freedom High School Principal Chris Farkas speaks at afternoon news conference concerning Jared Cano, an expelled student charged with possession of bomb making materials, in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011. Police Chief Jane Castor said Cano had threatened to plant a bomb at Freedom High School in north Tampa and detonate the device when students return Tuesday. (AP Photo/The Tampa Tribune, Cliff McBride) ST. PETERSBURG OUT; LAKELAND OUT; BRADENTON OUT; WINTER HAVEN OUT; MAGS OUT
Apartment 2805 at 15501 Bruce B. Downs, where authorities say they discovered bomb making materials, is photographed on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011 in Tampa, Fla. Tampa police have arrested an expelled student after thwarting what they deemed a potentially "catastrophic" plot to set off a bomb at his former high school and cause mass casualties on the first day of classes next week, authorities said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Tampa Tribune, Dave Kraut)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Two years before he was accused of plotting to bomb his high school, Jared Cano confronted police with a metal baseball bat when they came to his apartment looking for a stolen pistol, which they eventually found in his bedroom. He was 15 at the time, but already had several run-ins with police.
Cano's troubled history is outlined in police reports released after investigators uncovered what they say was a plan to attack the Tampa school that expelled him. None of the previous juvenile charges ? from burglary to firearm possession ? ended in a conviction.
Yet it appears that this week's bomb plot went beyond angry teenage bluster: Detectives said Cano had amassed shrapnel, plastic tubing, timing and fuse devices for pipe bombs. The attack plan investigators found on Tuesday was mapped out minute-by-minute.
Experts say the level of preparation shows how serious he was.
"Ninety-nine percent of the population who fantasize about harming someone because they are frustrated, or for whatever reason, don't actually make plans to carry it out," said Charles A. Williams, a Drexel University psychology professor and expert on violent youth.
School safety expert Kenneth S. Trump agreed that the written plans showed a "high probability" that Cano would have carried out an attack.
"The good news is that since Columbine we still see kids coming forward to report the threats and the plots, such as in this case," said Trump, president of Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services.
Tampa investigators were tipped off Tuesday that Cano was plotting to bomb Freedom High School, and they thought the information was plausible enough to search the apartment where he lived with his mother. Cano's past run-ins with the law had earned him a court-ordered curfew and a place on a police watch list.
"We've been very, very familiar with him," police Maj. John Newman said. Police have declined to say who tipped them off.
Before this week, Cano's most recent arrest came when he was accused in March 2010 of breaking into a house and stealing a handgun, Tampa police said. According to the police report, the gun's owner ? who was the grandfather of Cano's friend ? said the weapon had three rounds in the clip.
In January 2010, Cano was considered a suspect when a neighbor's screened porch was broken into. Nothing was stolen and no charges were filed.
Before that, police caught him with a stun gun in 2008, and he was arrested in 2007 at age 13 for stealing CDs out of a car.
Cano had been expelled from Freedom High in 2010. Reports said that he was being homeschooled at the time of his arrest this week, and that his mother is a Hillsborough County schoolteacher. He once told an officer that he had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. His parents were divorced, and his father told a local newspaper that he had not seen his son for several years.
Williams said Cano's expulsion may have started to push him over the edge because it isolated him from other people. The psychologist said expelling Cano was a mistake, and that school officials or authorities should have enrolled him in a treatment program.
"The more isolated they are, the more socially castigated they are, the more they're cut off, they start to stew and their evil and sinister thoughts metastasize in their minds like a cancer," he said. "The signs were all there. It was textbook."
Troubling imagery spilled over to Cano's Facebook page, which included photos of him holding a machete and drinking from a bottle of malt liquor.
He lists two favorite quotes: "lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten" and "dont trust anybody, cuz they all just wait for you to s--- a brick of gold so they can take it." He listed just 25 friends.
On his Facebook page Tuesday morning, Cano wrote: "i jut did the dumbest thing ever!" It's not clear exactly what he was referring to, but hours later officers showed up to search his mother's apartment.
Besides the bomb-making materials, officers said they also found a journal with schematic drawings of rooms inside Freedom High School and statements about Cano's intent to kill specific administrators and any students who happened to be nearby on Aug. 23. The plan was mapped out, minute-by-minute, Police Chief Jane Castor said.
Cano faces charges of possessing bomb-making materials, cultivating marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possessing marijuana and threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. He was being held in a juvenile lockup in Tampa. The state attorney's office will decide whether he will be charged as an adult.
Because of his expulsion, Cano likely would have been "red-flagged" as soon as he stepped on campus and probably would not have been able to pull off his plan when classes started next week, Principal Chris Farkas said. Still, Farkas was spooked about what could have happened to the school's 2,100 students.
Police also told Farkas that Cano worked alone.
After Cano was expelled from Freedom, he attended a charter school and left voluntarily in March, according to Hillsborough County schools spokeswoman Linda Cobbe. At that point, he was 16 and could have chosen to drop out. He was not registered to attend classes this upcoming school year.
Trump, the school safety expert, said that schools' violence prevention and security programs have been hindered by deep budget cuts.
Williams, the psychologist, said he hopes that Cano's case will be a wakeup call.
"I just hope people learn from this. This is like a textbook case study that I hope prevention specialists, people involved in schools and counseling and law enforcement will look at and say, 'Wow, this was really, really, really close.'"
___
Associated Press writers Christine Armario and Kelli Kennedy contributed to this report from Miami.
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