Police: Calif. Professor Plotted Mass Murder

A University of California, Irvine professor who was grieving the suicide of his teenage son is accused of writing in e-mail that he would commit mass murder at his late son's high school.

Police arrested Rainer Reinscheid for trying to light a fire in Mason Park Preserve with newspaper and lighter fluid not far from where his 14-year-old son, Claas Stubbe, had hanged himself four months before, the  Los Angeles Times  reports. He posted bail and was released, but when police searched his cell phone three days later, they discovered threatening e-mail.

In the e-mail, Reinscheid described a plan to buy guns, murder students and administrators, carry out sexual assaults, burn down University High School and commit suicide, the  Associated Press  reports. The e-mails do not support a criminal charge, but they do support the argument that Reinscheid is dangerous and should be denied bail on the arson charges, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Reinscheid is currently being held without bail for five counts of arson and one count of attempted arson for lighting objects on fire at the park, University High School and the home of the assistant principal.