Threats were made to a Florida Keys school, cops say. Now, an 11-year-old is arrested
Police in New Jersey arrested an 11-year-old boy Thursday for online threats made earlier this month to a Florida Keys elementary school, according to law enforcement in the island chain.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in the Keys obtained a warrant for the boy’s arrest in early January. He made the threats through social media against Key Largo School, the sheriff’s office said.
“I want to thank my staff, our partners at the Monroe County School District and State Attorney’s Office as well as officials in New Jersey for resolving this case quickly,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement. “I take these threats very seriously, and protecting our children is my highest priority.”
The boy, who has not been named, is facing a charge of sending written or electronic threats to kill or do bodily harm to another person, which is a second-degree felony, said Monroe County Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield.
He made the threats after becoming angry with other children he met online through a video game chat room, Mansfield added, showing them a picture of a gun and the school.
“In the wake of Nikolas Cruz, who’s just talking or who’s a real threat,” Mansfield said, referencing the shooter in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Amber Acevedo, spokeswoman for the Monroe County School District, confirmed the boy was never a student in the Keys public school system.
The boy was taken before a judge in Essex County in New Jersey on the warrant, but Mansfield said his mother is fighting his extradition to the Keys to answer for the charge.
