Hernando County Student Arrested For Mass Shooting Threat
A Hernando County student has been arrested for posting a mass shooting threat on his “Snapchat” account.
Hernando County Sheriff’s Office say they received a call from the FBI Violent Crimes unit in regards to an online threat.
Sources say the FBI had received information from another Snapchat user notifying them someone had posted a picture, making threats to Central High School in Hernando County.
After an investigation, the user was identified as a 16-year-old boy who attends Springstead High School. The picture he posted was of an assault rifle lying on a bed, along with the caption,“Yo bruh bouta run it up at central.”
After a complete check of the campus on Saturday by deputies, they could find no suspicious activity and nothing seemed out of place, or no unusual activity.
Deputies made contact with the 16 year old student, who admitted that he posted the photo. The student said he thought it was funny due to the amount of hoax threats there have been to schools this past year. They then located the “rifle” pictured in the photo and determined that it was actually an air-soft gun.
The gun was collected and put into evidence. Deputies also checked the rest of the residence but did not uncover any other weapons.
While this turned out to be a hoax, deputies MUST take these claims extremely serious. The act of making the threat is still a crime. Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis had this to say about it:
“Every threat made on a school, no matter what media it comes through, is taken as actual. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to react to each of these threats and to investigate the source of the threat. It is critically important for parents to stress the consequences of making such school threats or inappropriate comments regarding such matters in any and all school settings. Additionally, reporting such threats through normal channels will allow these issues to be investigated and resolved before the rumor mill generates exaggerated and/or unnecessary alarm amongst students, parents and concerned citizens.”
The 16 year old student was charged with written threats to kill/injure.
Source: ABC Action News