MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont State Police officials said they were aware of the arrest of a Montpelier man at St. Olaf College in Minnesota on suspicion of plotting an armed massacre. In a prepared statement in conjunction with the Vermont Department of Corrections, State Police said they were monitoring Waylon Kurts’ custody status in Minnesota. Kurts, 20, has told authorities in Minnesota that he owns an assault rifle at home with his family in Vermont. Kurts, apparently has no weapons Minnesota, but authorities have been concerned he might get a weapon if he’s released on bail from jail in Minnesota. Prosecutors in Rice County, home to St. Olaf, have asked the Kurts family in Vermont to turn over all their guns to police. The family is familiar with firearms and trap-shoots with shotguns. The family says none of its guns are missing from home in Vermont.

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Kurts profile

Kurts is a graduate of public schools in Montpelier. He was a member of the school’s cross-country team. His aunt, the politically active Zephyr Teachout, also was a championship cross-country runner in college. The family has roots in Vermont. Not much is known of Kurts’ own politics. As a seventh-grader he traveled to the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan on Central Asia. His family is political. His mother, Woden Teachout, has written two books on politics — “Slow Democracy,” co-authored with Susan Clark, and “Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism.” His grandmother is Mary Miles Teachout, a former county judge who retired in 2022. His aunt is Zephyr Teachout, a progressive Democrat who finished second to Andrew Cuomo in a New York gubernatorial primary. In 2011 she participated in the 59-day left-wing populist Occupy Wall Street demonstration. A strong Bernie Sanders supporter, she got into hot water when in 2020 she said Joe Biden had “a big corruption problem.” She later apologized to Biden for the remark.

Kurts. In jail in Northfield. Has been suspended from St. Olaf College. Wants to go home to Vermont.