Timberview High School shooting suspect arrested for bond violation after failing drug test

Suspect school shooter Timothy Simpkins arrest for violating bond conditions - Screenshot courtesy of Fox News on YouTube

Timberview High School shooting suspect arrested for bond violation after failing drug test

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ARLINGTON, TX – A Texas teenager who was shockingly released on bail after his arrest for shooting three people inside Mansfield Timberview High School was arrested again on Christmas Eve after violating the terms of his parole, according to authorities.

Tarrant County Criminal Court on Thursday issued a warrant for 18-year-old Timothy Simpkins for failing a drug test. A urinalysis required by his bond indicated the teen had used a prohibited substance.

Terms of his bail required that Simpkins avoid use of any illegal substances and not use alcohol. Authorities have not said what illegal substance was detected.

Simpkins was bonded out of jail in October, just one day after the shooting.

The shooting stemmed from a fight Simpkins had with 15-year-old Zaccaeus Selby, who was reportedly shot by the suspect and critically injured but survived.

In addition to shooting Selby, Simpkins critically injured 15-year-old Zacchaeus Selby and seriously wounded 25-year-old teacher Calvin Pettitt, whom he shot in the back. A fourth victim, a pregnant woman, was injured but did not require treatment, according to authorities.

Timberview High School shooting suspect arrested for bond violation after failing drug test

Simpkins fled the school following the shooting and turned himself in to police hours later.

The teen was charged by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Despite the seriousness of the charges, the judge released Simpkins on $75,000 bond.

Along with restrictions on drugs and alcohol,  Simpkins’ bond required he be placed on house arrest with a GPS monitor, not possess a firearm, and be prohibited from contact with any of the victims.

Simpkins was remanded to jail late Thursday, according to Tarrant County jail records.

Simpkins’ bond violation comes just ten days after his attorney submitted a court request to modify his bond to allow attendance at Sunday church services. The judge has not ruled on that request.

In addition to the controversy created by releasing the alleged school shooter on bond, more erupted when Dallas attorney Kim T. Cole opened a GoFundMe page for the shooter, asking the public to give him money to help work through the trauma.

GoFundMe page, which sought to collect $25,000 for Simpkins because he was “traumatized,” was removed two days later following a public outcry. A GoFundMe spokesman said:

‘The fundraiser was removed from the platform because it violated GoFundMe Terms of Service.

“Less than $150 was raised and all donors have been refunded.’

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Madness: GoFundMe started for ‘traumatized’ school shooter who was quickly released on low bail (op-ed)

October 10, 2021

ARLINGTON, VA – Our nation has gone mad.

There is no other explanation for what is happening in Arlington, Texas, since a school shooter critically injured 15-year-old Zacchaeus Selby and seriously wounded 25-year-old teacher Calvin Pettitt, whom he shot in the back, when he opened fire at Timberview High School on Wednesday. 

In an inexcusable decision that goes against every possible logical argument, alleged shooter Timothy Simpkins, 18, who was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, was released on bail from the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday.

As hard as that is to imagine in a country being plagued by school shootings and growing student body counts, where parents sending their children to school have to worry like parents sending their children off to war… this story gets worse.

While schoolmate-turned-victim Selby lay in the hospital, clinging to life after being shot four times, Dallas attorney Kim T. Cole opened a GoFundMe page for the shooter, asking the public to give him money to help work through the trauma.

Not to help the victims, but to help the shooter.

The fundraiser included a long statement written by the shooter’s mother, who commented on a video that was released on social media showing a fight between Simpkins and Selby prior to the shooting.

The mother wrote:

“Many of you have seen the video of the brutal beating Timothy Simpkins received. He never even returned a blow. He simply balled up and covered his head trying to protect himself.

“What you don’t know is that Timothy was robbed at gunpoint and stripped of his possessions a couple of weeks ago. And the unfortunate backstory is that Timothy’s father was brutally beaten to death. This fact definitely heightened Timothy’s fear for his life.

“Not to mention that the young man responsible for beating and harassing him had recently made threats to kill him so you see, my son was terrified and believed he would be murdered just like his father.”

It is important to pause here and reflect for a moment. The two boys did have a schoolroom fight, as many students throughout the ages have. The fight was quickly broken up by school staff, and the boys were separated.

Not that it matters now, but where are the school records showing the family trying to address these safety concerns? Where are the police reports that were filed by the family or the shooter prior to the shooting asking them to intervene in any conflicts?

Once the fight was broken up, an arrest affidavit said witnesses saw Simpkins retrieve a black firearm from a backpack, point the firearm at Selby, and shoot.

STOP! At this exact point, all excuses end.

Past trauma, conflicts with schoolmates, bullying… these are not excuses to shoot, and America must stop saying that it is.

Pulling the trigger on a machine capable of inflicting lethal injury on another human being is the ultimate form of violence, and is not a tool to treat bullying.

America needs to wake up, toss aside these delusions that criminals are victims, and remember that victims are victims. Criminals may sometimes be victims, but they are victims who went too far. And for that, there must be punishment in a civilized society.

Although fighting in school and bullying should be dealt with strictly and quickly by school administrators, it should not and cannot be used as an excuse for violent and deadly retaliation.

Simpkins’s mother, Katrina, wrote on the GoFundMe site that her son deserves mental health care:

“My son has gone through a very traumatic experience. He needs counseling and therapy.”

I have no doubt that this is true, but he should receive it from a jail cell. At what point did the country decide that there were acceptable excuses for school shootings? Does this treatment have anything to do with the shooter’s race? Democrats and liberals are invited to speak up here. Care to comment, Mr. President?

The GoFundMe page raised just over $150 before it was shut down in a moment of sanity by the site for a violation of policy.

Carol Harrison-Lafayette, a family member, said Simpkins should not have used a gun, but then justified the use of violence as self-defense:

“The decision that he made taking the gun, we’re not justifying. That was not right but he was trying to protect himself.”

 

In a Facebook post, Simpkins’s family wrote that the shooter “has never been known to bother anyone and would do anything to help someone in need.”

I can think of a few people who may disagree with that statement today. Those people would include the family of Zacchaeus Selby. In a heartbreaking interview with WFAA News, Selby’s mother said her son placed a video call to her after being shot.

She said she saw blood rushing over his body. Per Selby’s family, the 15-year-old was shot in the arm, leg, chest, and stomach.

The child, and that is what a 15-year-old boy is, was placed in an induced coma and is on a ventilator.

Selby’s grandmother, Kathy Selby, said the media was making the shooter out to be the victim:

“They’re making Simpkins out to be the victim. My grandson is in the ICU–shot four times. My grandson is the victim.”

Sadly, it is true that the shooter is becoming the victim of the story, and that truth is wrong.

This article began with the statement that our nation has gone mad. The Macmillan Dictionary defines madness as “ideas or actions that show a lack of good judgement and careful thought.”

In America today, a police officer in Georgia is being crucified for using foot strikes to take into custody an armed, wanted criminal fleeing through a public place where many innocent civilians could have been seriously injured or killed.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old adult pulled a gun in a crowded classroom of one of our high schools and fired multiple times, seriously injuring two, minorly injuring one, and placing the lives of hundreds of others in threat of serious injury or death.

The Georgia Trooper could potentially lose his job, face criminal charges, and be held civilly liable for putting his life on the line to protect the strangers around him.

The school shooter who opened fire on children and teachers in a classroom could potentially walk free with a bag filled with money.

And the streets of America are silent.

It’s madness.
 

 

 

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About The Author

Scott A. Davis is a 28-year veteran of law enforcement. He served as a Police Sergeant and as a Detective in Pennsylvania. Scott retired from law enforcement in 2020. Prior to his law enforcement career, Scott was an award-winning journalist and recipient of two Keystone Press Awards.

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