A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on Long Island for stating in an online chat that he wanted to shoot people at his school.
The Lindenhurst student was chatting online with other students Wednesday when he threatened to shoot people at Brennan High School in West Babylon, NBC News reported.
A 911 call alerted police to the threat the teenager made after school. Suffolk County police picked him up at 10:10 p.m
The unidentified student was charged with threats of mass harmreported News 12 Long Island. The teenager was released into the custody of his parents misdemeanor charges and was to be arraigned in Suffolk County Family Court at a later date, according to 1010 Wins.
On Thursday, the first day of classes saw an increased police presence at Brennan High School, News 12 noted. Residents and parents expressed relief that a potential shooting had been averted.
“Thank goodness for the police. Thank goodness they caught their attention,” Wyandanch resident Terri Ivory told the station. “We don’t want to wait for something to happen. We want to nip it in the bud before it happens.”
The Brennan student’s threat fell on the same day as 14-year-old Colt Gray postponed his high school in Georgia, killed two teachers and two studentsand send nine others to the hospital.
A sheriff’s report revealed Thursday that suspect had been questioned more than a year earlier by an investigator from a nearby county after receiving an FBI tip that Gray, then 13, “had possibly threatened to suspend a middle school tomorrow.” The boy denied the threats.
The FBI in Atlanta and the local sheriff’s office said they had not compiled enough evidence to arrest Gray at the time only issued a warning to local schools for “continued surveillance” of the teenager.
With News Wire Services