BROWNSTOWN – Jackson Circuit Judge Richard R. Poynter set bond at an exceptionally high $2 million on Friday afternoon for Emiliano Cuevas-Bravo, the 18-year-old Seymour resident accused in the April 30 shooting at the Jackson County Public Library.
“If I could hold you without bond, I would,” Judge Poynter told Cuevas-Bravo during the hearing, acknowledging state law requires a bond for all suspects except those charged with murder.
During the proceedings, chilling details of Cuevas-Bravo’s alleged premeditated plans were revealed through recordings of his interview with Seymour Police Detective Chris Franklin and voice recordings recovered from Cuevas-Bravo’s phone.
In the interview, Cuevas-Bravo admitted to documenting his plans in a notebook, which he later disposed of, and on a Google Docs file that included pre-planned farewell messages. The phone recordings, spanning from 47 days before the incident to just 30 minutes prior, reportedly captured an escalating excitement in Cuevas-Bravo’s voice about carrying out his plans.
Disturbingly, Cuevas-Bravo could be heard in the recordings declaring himself “the god of his world” and expressing a desire to “outdo previous gunmen” from notorious events like the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 and the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. He explicitly stated that the library was chosen due to its connection to Columbine, after his initial attempt to target the school resource officer at Seymour High School was unsuccessful.
Judge Poynter expressed his profound disturbance at Cuevas-Bravo’s alleged motive to kill and then commit suicide to achieve fame, calling it the “most disturbing case” he has encountered in his 26 years as a prosecutor and judge. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark Hollingsworth echoed this sentiment, stating, “None of us are safe with him out.”
Cuevas-Bravo remained quiet throughout the hearing as his attorney, Brett Hays of Seymour, presented four witnesses who testified about his client’s upbringing and personality, expressing their disbelief that the then-Seymour High School senior could have committed such an act. A close friend, Javier Roblero, testified through tears that the voice on the recording was “not the person he knew all of his life” and that he “never” would have suspected his friend. Yairi Nicolas, close to the Cuevas-Bravo family, also stated the recordings were out of character for him.
Hays suggested Cuevas-Bravo could wear an ankle bracelet if released on bond. Still, Judge Poynter firmly rejected the idea, stating no amount of tracking could prevent him from attempting similar actions again.
Cuevas-Bravo currently faces 15 criminal charges, including seven Level 1 felonies of attempted murder, a Level 2 felony for possession of a destructive device or explosive, a Level 4 felony of arson, a Level 5 felony of shooting a firearm into a building, and five Level 6 felony charges for pointing a gun at another human being.
According to the probable cause affidavit, signed by Detective Franklin, dispatchers received a 911 call reporting an active shooter at noon on April 30 at the library, located at 303 W. Second St. in downtown Seymour.
Upon officers’ arrival, Cuevas-Bravo was found being detained by a patron on the second floor, just minutes after firing a shot from a Mossberg 500 shotgun through a glass wall into a circulation desk on the first floor. Pellets from the shotgun shell struck a clerk in the upper left arm, while a second clerk at the desk was unharmed.
The shotgun, purchased by Cuevas-Bravo on March 14, jammed after the first shot. Police later discovered he possessed 95 shotgun shells, including the spent ones.
In his interview with police, Cuevas-Bravo revealed he had been feeling lonely and depressed for the past year, even considering himself a failure and attempting suicide. Over the past year, he developed an interest in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, which led him to plan a shooting at Seymour High School.
On April 30, chosen as “Hitler’s death day,” Cuevas-Bravo drove to Seymour High School to target the school resource officer and other students. He wore black like the Columbine shooters and allegedly told police he was “going to cap the SRO first and then go wild,” shooting random students. He had concealed the shotgun under clothing in his car’s passenger seat and had a pipe bomb in his backpack, which he believed he had not constructed “the right way” after learning how to make it online.
However, his target shifted when he saw a teacher he knew in the area. Cuevas-Bravo then left the high school and drove to the library, intending to shoot people and eventually kill himself. He fired the shotgun through the front entrance’s glass doors, shattering the window. The injured library employee made eye contact with him and yelled, shooter.
After the first shot, Cuevas-Bravo told Franklin the spent shotgun shell failed to eject, and he was unsuccessful in removing it. He then went upstairs, threw down the gun, and began pouring motor oil from a container onto the library floor, intending to start a fire. However, he was tackled by a patron and surrendered.
The pipe bomb was later found in Cuevas-Bravo’s backpack. Master Trooper Richard Stockdale of the Indiana State Police confirmed that the backpack could have been used to improvise the pipe bomb into a Molotov cocktail.
A Probable Cause Affidavit outlines the initial findings and allegations that led to an arrest. Criminal charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
