A Brooklyn teen was busted for allegedly making a number of threats to colleges throughout Texas and Florida – even personally concentrating on a relative of one of many victims of the 2022 Uvalde faculty bloodbath on TikTok, authorities introduced this week.
The 16-year-old boy was picked up Might 1 at his Brooklyn residence and charged with one felony rely of creating terroristic threats, the Uvalde Police Division mentioned Wednesday.
Along with the threats to the Uvalde taking pictures sufferer’s household, he’s accused of creating a number of “swatting” – or false report – calls and sending threats to the Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District on social media again in January, police mentioned.
He additionally admitted to creating a number of swatting calls to colleges and legislation enforcement businesses in Uvalde and San Antonio, in addition to Coral Springs, and Parkland, Florida, authorities mentioned.
These threats got here a short while after the calls in Uvalde – and investigators in the end tracked the caller to the New York space, police mentioned.
The teenager additionally fessed as much as researching energetic shooter incidents and monitoring social media accounts for legislation enforcement businesses and college students within the Uvalde faculty district, cops mentioned.
A 3-month investigation dubbed “Lengthy Arm of Justice” involving 14 businesses throughout Texas, Florida and New York in the end led detectives from the Brooklyn District Lawyer’s Workplace to the teenager’s residence.
Investigators searched his residence and located that he didn’t have entry to weapons and had no direct connections to Uvalde, San Antonio or Florida, police mentioned.
However the teen’s alleged actions “have had important implications for college security, group safety, and the allocation of legislation enforcement assets,” Uvalde police mentioned in a Wednesday launch.
“This operation demonstrates our dedication to working with companions to make sure we maintain individuals accountable for threatening our group,” Uvalde Police Chief Homer E. Delgado mentioned in a press release. “We won’t permit distance or digital anonymity to defend those that attempt to trigger concern or disrupt the protection of our faculties and neighborhoods.”
The case is being prosecuted in Texas, in keeping with a spokesman for the Brooklyn DA’s workplace, who mentioned his company merely helped with the arrest.
The teenager’s identify was not launched by legislation enforcement as a result of he’s a juvenile.
