Girl, 15, is arrested for threatening to shoot up her California high school after posting a photo of a Walmart gun display case on social media, saying ‘don’t come to school tomorrow’
- A 15-year-old girl was arrested on Thursday for making a terror threat against her Edison High School in California
- The teen had posted a photo on Snapchat of a gun display case in Walmart and said ‘Don’t come to school tomorrow’
- Snapchat immediately notified the FBI after learning about the threatening post
- Police tracked down the school and located the person who uploaded the post
- The girl was removed from class by police and she admitted to posting the photo
A 15-year-old girl has been arrested for posting a threat on social media that suggested she was going to shoot up her California high school.
The teenager, who hasn’t been identified but attends Edison High School near Fresno, had posted a photo on Snapchat of a gun display case in Walmart.
Her photo included the message: ‘Don’t come to school tomorrow’.
Snapchat immediately notified the FBI after learning about the threatening post.
The teenager, who hasn’t been identified but attends Edison High School near Fresno, had posted a photo on Snapchat of a gun display case in Walmart. Her photo included the message: ‘Don’t come to school tomorrow’
The FBI subsequently warned the Fresno Police Department of the post at 5am on Thursday.
Authorities were able to determine the poster’s school and managed to find the home from where previous posts from that same Snapchat account had been sent.
Officers immediately went to the home and spoke to a woman who said she was the girl’s aunt.
Police said the girl was already on a bus on her way to school.
The teenager was then removed from class by a guidance counselor and questioned by police.
Fresno Police chief Jerry Dyer said the girl admitted to posting the threat but she couldn’t explain why she had done so.
Dyer said the post was ‘very disturbing’ but they later determined the threat wasn’t credible.
The teenager, who hasn’t been identified, was arrested at Edison High School near Fresno on Thursday and charged with making a terror threat
Fresno Police chief Jerry Dyer said the girl admitted to posting the threat but she couldn’t explain why she had done so. He called the post ‘very disturbing’
The girl was charged as a juvenile with making a terror threat.
Police said the girl would be spending a considerable amount of time in custody and warned that she may have potentially ruined her life.
‘Whether it’s terrorist threats, sexting, vulgarity, bullying – all of that on social media is immediately trackable back to you and you can’t be naive about it,’ Fresno Unified School District Superintendent Bob Nelson said.
‘Let me be clear, there is no joking around any issues involving school safety.’
The police chief said they took threats like this one very seriously given some of the recent mass shootings.
‘One of the reasons we take this so seriously in law enforcement is because we never know when this threat will be carried out. We only know what the threat is, we don’t know whether or not the person is capable of carrying out that threat,’ Dyer said.
‘The other reason that we take this so seriously is because we’re very much aware of copycats.’