Ohio man charged in 2019 faux hostage threat at local elementary school to stand trial

May 12—An Ohio man accused of calling in a fake hostage threat at Lee Elementary School in 2019 will stand trial in late August.

Allen Kenna, 19, is facing federal charges of interstate communication of threats and attempted use of an explosive device.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio accuses Kenna of calling Riley County police and Topeka television news stations to tell them he had a hostage at gunpoint inside Lee Elementary in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2019. Police later searched the school and found no threat inside, resolving the issue before the school day began.

The second charge stems from Kenna reportedly trying to build an explosive device intended for an attack on Cuyahoga Falls High School, federal prosecutors said.

Ohio and FBI authorities searched Kenna's home and found materials that could have been used to make an explosive device. In the process of that search, they also found journal entries that mentioned the hostage hoax.

Kenna's defense lawyers had a competency examination performed on Kenna on March 25, saying that Kenna exhibited signs of mental health problems while confined at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio.

A federal judge ruled him to be competent to stand trial, which she scheduled to begin Aug. 30. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug. 23.