The compound where police discovered 11 malnourished children and five adults. Screenshot/CNN.com
Court documents filed on Wednesday reveal that five suspects have been arrested at a New Mexico compound for abusing 11 children, and were training them to commit school shootings, reports CNN — but the filings lacked details about the alleged training.
The backdrop: The revelation comes after law enforcement authorities, searching for a missing 3-year-old boy, found 11 starving children living in a filthy compound in Amalia, New Mexico. Police said the compound lacked electricity or plumbing.
The five suspects — two men and three women — are each facing 11 counts of child abuse and neglect. The charges each of the suspects are facing has a penalty of up to three years in prison, reports The New York Times. The defendants appeared in court Wednesday and have not yet been formally charged, per CNN.
- At least one of the 11 children, each aged between 1 and 15, was trained how to use an assault rifle in preparation for carrying out school shootings, per the Times.
Police reportedly found a child's remains on the property Monday, but it is unclear whether the remains are those of the missing boy allegedly abducted from Georgia by his father, Siraj Wahhaj, nine months ago. Wahhaj is one of the suspects.