Moment cops arrest a 15-year-old boy who ‘threatened on a gaming site to take his father’s assault weapon to school and shoot at least seven people’ – but claims he was ‘joking’
- Bodycam footage shows the officers at the teenager’s Holly Hill home on Friday
- Seabreeze High School student allegedly wrote on Discord: ‘I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill seven people at a minimum’
- The comment was reported to the FBI, and the FBI contacted local police
- In the clip the boy’s mom pleads with officers, telling them: ‘He’s just a little kid’
- Police say the teen admitted making the comment but claimed it was a ‘joke’
- Other gamers are said to have warned him against making the threat
- The teenager was charged with threatening to discharge a destructive device
This is the moment police arrested a 15-year-old boy who they say threatened on a gaming site to bring his father’s assault weapon to his Florida school to shoot seven people ‘at a minimum’.
Bodycam footage shows the officers at the teenager’s Holly Hill home after he is said to have written on the game platform Discord: ‘I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill seven people at a minimum.’
The Seabreeze High School student, who was using a fake name, was charged with threatening to discharge a destructive device, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
The comment was reported to the FBI, and the FBI contacted local police after tracing his username FalconWarrior920 and internet address to his home.
Bodycam footage shows the officers at the teenager’s Holly Hill home on Friday. In the clip the boy’s mom, left, pleads with officers, right, telling them: ‘He’s just a little kid’. She admits to police she has a gun but said her son, standing next to her in orange socks, would not access it
The Seabreeze High School, pictured, student allegedly wrote on Discord using a fake name: ‘I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill seven people at a minimum’
Police made the arrest Friday and the teen is said to have admitted making the comment but claimed it was a ‘joke’.
Other gamers are said to have warned him against making the threat saying it was a ‘serious problem’ that should not be joked about, according to reports.
A statement from police said: ‘The name ‘Dalton Barnhart’ was fake, and the young man responsible for the comment insisted it was a joke.
‘Joke or not, these types of comments are felonies under the law.
‘After the mass violence we’ve seen in Florida and across the country, law enforcement officers have a responsibility to investigate and charge those who choose to make these types of threatening statements.’
As officers make the arrest the boy’s mother pleads with officers, bursting into tears.
She admits to police there was a gun in the home but said her son, standing next to her in shorts and orange socks, would not access it.
His mother tells officers: ‘But he’s just a little kid playing a video game.’
One officers replies: ‘How do we know he isn’t going to be the next Parkland or the kid that shot up Sandy Hook? We don’t know that.’
She adds: ‘This kids say stuff like this all the time. It is a joke to them. It’s a game.
‘He’s just a little boy, he didn’t do anything wrong. He’s not one of the crazy people out there doing stuff.’
The teen was one of a number of men arrested in the last week on charges of threatening a mass shootings in Florida, Connecticut and Ohio, just two weeks after the country saw two devastating massacres that left 29 dead in 24 hours.
Tristan Scott Wix, 25, was arrested Friday outside a supermarket in Daytona Beach Shores accused of threatening a mass shooting in a slew of threatening text messages sent to his ex-girlfriend.
Connecticut police arrested Brandon Wagshol, 22, on Thursday August 15 after police say he posted on Facebook saying he wanted to commit a mass shooting and was spotted trying to purchase high capacity magazines.
And Ohio man James Patrick Reardon, 20, was arrested and booked into jail on Saturday for threatening to carry out a shooting at a Jewish community center.