11:08 AM PDT on Saturday, September 18, 2004

By PAT McREYNOLDS / KING 5 News

KING Andrew Osantowski

SEATTLE - The action of a father and daughter in Clarkston, Wash. led to the arrest of a man halfway across the country Thursday and may have saved dozens of lives in the process.

Authorities said 17-year-old Andrew Osantowski was all set to bring terror to his classmates at Chippewa Valley High School in Michigan. He had allegedly threatened as much in an online chat room

Osantowski reportedly wrote: "I choose to rise above everyone else, people can be kissing my shotgun straight out of doom. if you don't like it, you die."

At another point, Osantowski allegedly wrote, "if I don't like what you stand for you die. I choose who lives and dies."

But when George McGinty -- a Washington State University Police officer specializing in computer crime -- saw what Osantowski wrote in the chat room his daughter was visiting, he decided he had to act.

He called police, who raided Osantowski's home Thursday and found a stockpile full of bombs, ammunition and assault rifles.

"I realized there was a potential for another Columbine is what went through my mind," he said. "Some of the things that were said in the chat room made me believe this was something that had to be taken seriously."

Because of McGinty's tip, Michigan police seized the arsenal as well as boxes of Nazi propaganda and journals detailing his plans to attack the school.

They arrested Osantowski as well as his father and a neighbor who allegedly taught them how to make bombs.

The suspect's mother thinks he was brainwashed by neo-Nazi Web sites. But in this case, the Internet and an alert Washington family may have stopped another school disaster.

"I'm glad we could avert something that could have been a potential tragedy," McGinty said.

The 17-year-old Osantowski is being held on a $1 million bond. He had only been a student at Chippewa High School for 10 days.

The suspect's father is charged with concealing stolen firearms. The neighbor faces charges of possessing explosives and manufacturing marijuana.