Copycat School Shooting Suspects Thwarted

[LadyBlue]

MESA, AZ - A Toronto video blogger received a message about a murderous plot at a high school somewhere in the United States; turns out, that plot was written by a sixteen-year-old girl in Saguaro Lake.

The target: Red Mountain High School in Mesa.

The blogger, Alex Haney, 25, contacted the Toronto Police Department after hearing a fellow blogger in California also received the very same message.

“My reaction was, this person needs help,” Haney told ABC15 via Skype from his home.

Haney blogs about transgender issues on YouTube, which is why he believes the stranger contacted him.

“They were saying they’re "trans," and that’s why they’re reaching out to me,” he said.

The teenage suspect wrote the post under a boy’s name, said a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.

“I didn’t want to reply and say the wrong thing,” Haney told ABC15, “and possibly make it worse."

The message said, in part:

I now literally have a plan of seriously hurting… killing… murdering people in my high school… I WORK at the high school as a student teacher basically… which is why no one can find out about me somewhat accidentally planning to blow up the school… (and yes… it would be super easy.)

Toronto police detectives ultimately contacted MCSO when they learned where the threat was made.

The teen was arrested at her home on Wednesday night.
www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/mesa/toronto-video-blogger-alex-haney-alerted-police-to-a-school-shooting-threat-at-a-mesa-high-school

[LadyBlue]

Bay Shore student’s shooting threat prompts school safety concerns

A Long Island teenager is accused of threatening on Facebook to carry out a shooting at a school, authorities said.

A Bay Shore teenager created a Facebook page using the name of a girl in his class, Suffolk County cops said. He then posted a threat on that page about committing a shooting at their school on December 19, police said.

Detectives investigated and traced the Facebook page to the teenager and arrested him.

Authorities charged the 14-year-old boy with making a terroristic threat, a class D felony. He was released to his mother and is required to appear in Family Court on January 2, 2013, police said.

"The Suffolk County Police Department takes all threats seriously, will conduct full investigations and make any and all appropriate arrests," the department said in a statement.
www.myfoxny.com/story/20388518/police-li-teen-accused-of-threatening-to-shoot-up-school

[LadyBlue]

Man jailed for making school shooting threat; buildings on partial lockdown

BILLINGS -- At a Wednesday news conference, Billings Police Chief Rich St. John said that a man suspected of making a school shooting threat had been arrested and School District 2 superintendent Terry Bouck announced that schools will be on partial lockdown through Friday over safety concerns.

St. John said that the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office arrested Rodney Dale Wilm, 51, at about 10 a.m. Wednesday in Lockwood after an early-morning phone call to the City-County Emergency Dispatch Center.

Shortly after 2 a.m., the center received a call from a man who said "school shooting tomorrow" and hung up. Authorities tracked the call to a Lockwood home on Omaha Street using latitude and longitude of a cellphone used to make the call.

Wilm faces a felony charge of intimidation and was booked into the Yellowstone County jail. St. John said that the arresting deputies found enough evidence to take Wilm into custody.

He said that even though there's "no indication of any type threat to our school facilities" and no evidence Wilm intended to carry out the threat, law enforcement takes it seriously.

"It's irresponsible, creates unnecessary fear and takes away resources," St. John said.
helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/man-jailed-for-making-school-shooting-threat-buildings-on-partial/article_27fcfca6-4ab9-11e2-893b-001a4bcf887a.html

[LadyBlue]

KENNEBUNK, Maine — Superintendent Andrew Dolloff issued a letter to the school community Wednesday evening announcing a potential shooting threat allegedly made on Facebook against Gorham High School and potentially other area schools.

School and public safety officials have explored the threat and have not seen or heard a threat against any schools in Kennebunk or elsewhere in Maine, Dolloff said. The Regional School Unit 21 superintendent said he will meet with local police chiefs on Thursday to review the potential threat and determine how to best ensure local schools are safe heading into the holiday weekend.

In his letter sent through the AlertNow system, Dolloff said he received an e-mail late Wednesday afternoon from the superintendent in Gorham indicating that district received word of a “potential threat to their high and, possibly, others in York and Cumberland counties.”

“The threat was reportedly seen on Facebook, though no one has been able to locate the threat — just people on Facebook saying they heard about it,” wrote Dolloff, who immediately contacted local law enforcement and school technology staff, prompting an investigation.

“In contact with the Gorham Police Department and Gorham School Department, it became clear that they have no details about the threat and, other than lots of Facebook postings from people who are helping to spread the rumor, no sign of the actual threat itself.”
www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121219-NEWS-121219710