10-year-old arrested for threatening to carry out mass shooting
A 10-year-old boy has been arrested for threatening to carry out a mass shooting via text message.
The 5th grader from Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral, in the state of Florida, was pictured in handcuffs and being walked to a police car on Saturday evening.
He was interviewed and charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, coming just days after 19 children and two of their teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Texas.
“This student’s behaviour is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement.
“Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent. It’s not funny. This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences.”
The sheriff’s office’s School Threat Enforcement Team was tipped off about the message and quick to act.
“Making sure our children are safe is paramount,” Sheriff Macreno said.
"My team didn’t hesitate one second, not one second, to investigate this threat.”
While police in Texas were on the scene within minutes of the shooting at Robb Elementary School, officers have come under fire for waiting almost 80 minutes to enter the classroom and kill gunman Salvador Ramos.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has since admitted that law enforcement’s response fell disastrously short.
“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision,” Director Steve McCraw said on the delay.
Image: Lee County Sheriff's office