A 14-year-old in Pennsylvania and a 16-year-old in California have been arrested in recent days for unrelated, alleged school shooting threats, according to police.
The Waynesboro Police Department (WPD) in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, announced that on Tuesday night, officers received a complaint regarding a social media post depicting “a picture of a masked subject with a handgun,” with a message telling students not to attend school. The WPD alerted the Waynesboro Area School District (WASD) to the post, and the district subsequently canceled school Wednesday.
“With the events of the last couple weeks…we felt we had to leave the kids home, it would have been tough for any parent to send their kids,” WASD Superintendent Tod Kline said, according to WHNT.
“Investigators from our department as well as assistance from the District Attorney’s office determined that the account from which the threat emanated was fictitious and that the individual named on the account was not involved in creating or disseminating the threatening message,” the release noted.
Police said they arrested a 14-year-old, who allegedly created the false account and threatening post that followed, late Wednesday afternoon. He is “charged with one felony count of terroristic threats, one misdemeanor count of terroristic threats and one felony count of criminal use of a communications facility,” according to the WPD. He is being held in custody “pending a hearing.”
The incident follows another threat on the opposite end of the country that led to the arrest of a 16-year-old boy.
In a press release, the Berkeley Police Department (BPD) in California said on May 21, officers “received a tip that a 16-year-old boy had attempted to recruit other high school students to participate in a school shooting at Berkeley High School that included explosives.” Authorities obtained a search warrant for the teen’s residence, which was executed May 22.
The BPD said officers discovered “parts to explosives and assault rifles, several knives, and electronic items that could be used to create additional weapons,” at the residence.
The matter was transferred to the department’s Youth Services Unit and detectives obtained an arrest warrant for the teen after further investigating the threat, the release said. After turning himself over to police Monday, the teen was “arrested on suspicion of possessing destructive device materials and threatening to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury.”
Berkeley Public Schools (BPS) announced it is conducting its own investigation into the matter.
“We want to thank the individuals who came forward to report this threat. Speaking up in this instance allowed for the police to intervene in advance of any harm occurring,” BPS stated.
The arrests come as a gunman murdered nineteen children and two teachers on May 24 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. On Monday, Breitbart News noted that authorities “in two Florida counties are looking into unrelated alleged school shooting threats involving a teen and a child.”