Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook said the teen is now facing felony charges and is being held in police custody.
CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A 14-year-old boy is facing felony charges after fabricating a text thread that threatened a shooting at Clay High School on Wednesday, as revealed by Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook in a Facebook video.
Cook said the teen concocted the plan because he was mad at his older brother.
According to the sheriff, the situation unfolded at about 7 a.m. when the sheriff’s office received information about an individual planning to bring a firearm to Clay High School. Deputies quickly reacted by heading to the school to ensure a law enforcement presence and implemented a “modified” lockdown.
Cook said investigators were able to find the name of the possible person who made the threat, and deputies responded to the individual’s home.
When deputies arrived, Cook said they found a teen who said he had nothing to do with the threat.
Investigators found out that the teen’s older brother was a student at Bannerman Learning Center, leading law enforcement to place that school under a modified lockdown as well.
The sheriff explained that the teen’s mother cooperated with authorities, who subsequently discovered that the younger teen, upset with his older sibling, had concocted the fake text thread regarding bringing a gun to school. The teenager then took screenshots of these texts and forwarded them to the police, intending to implicate his brother and cause chaos at the school.
“Long story short, the 14-year-old has been arrested,” Cook said in the video. First Coast News is not naming the teen due to his age.
The teen is in police custody and is facing charges of false report of use of a firearm in a violent manner, which is a felony.
No firearm has been located.
