SAPD Releases Details of Arrest of Central Student Who Made Threat

SAN ANGELO, TX--(SAPD) A San Angelo High School student was arrested Thursday afternoon after making alleged threats about impending shootings at Central High School via Snapchat. 

Another Central High School student who received the message immediately notified authorities about the threat, which specified the suspect’s desire to target specific student groups. 

San Angelo Independent School District Officials quickly notified an off-duty San Angelo Police Officer who was working school security.  The notification led to an immediate investigation.  

The suspect, a 16-year-old San Angelo resident and Central High School Student, was detained and interviewed by the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division. 

Following the interview, the juvenile was arrested for Terroristic Threat Causing Fear Imminent Serious Bodily Injury and transported to the Tom Green County Juvenile Justice Center.  Investigators searched the suspect’s residence; however, no weapons were located. 

[In this case] the offense of Terroristic Threat Causing Fear Imminent Serious Bodily Injury is a Class B Misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.   

Following yesterday’s arrest, San Angelo Police responded to multiple reports of imminent threats of campus violence that were circulating through social media.  The threat was accompanied by a photograph of a partially-masked male subject holding what appeared to be an assault rifle while posing for a selfie in front of a bathroom mirror.  The photo, which also circulated on Snapchat, was taken by a high school student in South Carolina.  The South Carolina student was arrested. 

The San Angelo Police Department is committed to the close partnership is has with local school officials and any threat of violence, regardless if it is made fictitiously, that depletes law enforcement and school resources at a time when the Nation is grieving alongside the community of Parkland, Florida, will receive our full attention and perpetrators will be charged accordingly with the maximum applicable charge.