Oct. 22 – A 14-year-old Lind-Ritzville High School student is accused of using the social media app Snapchat to threaten to shoot up and bomb his school, prompting officials to close schools on Tuesday.
The boy was arrested at a home Tuesday afternoon and booked into the Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Center in Medical Lake on suspicion of making a bomb threat, Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner said.
A Facebook post from the sheriff’s office said the boy “made serious threats against the school, including threats of a shooting and bombing targeting staff, students and the school.”
The sheriff’s office wrote that it believed the boy acted alone. His identity has not been revealed.
According to a statement from the Ritzville Police Department, police have found a list of possible targets for the suspect. Parents were notified if their child was one of those listed.
The sheriff’s office requested assistance from the Hanford Patrol K-9 unit, and a specialized explosives detection team conducted a search of the high school and confirmed it was free of explosives, the sheriff’s office said.
Law enforcement officers executed search warrants at a home in Ritzville, but did not specify whether it was the home where the student lived, the sheriff’s office said.
Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools closed all schools in the district on Tuesday “out of an abundance of caution,” according to a Facebook post from the district.
“These threats include names, methods and times, and we take them very seriously,” according to a Tuesday letter from Lind-Ritzville School District Superintendent Don Vanderholm to Lind-Ritzville parents, students and staff. “Working with local law enforcement, we are actively investigating the situation to determine the credibility of the threats and whether additional precautions are necessary.”
The letter said district officials were notified of the threats Monday evening via Snapchat, a social media messaging app.
The district will consult with law enforcement to help determine when schools will reopen, the letter said.
The police continue to investigate.
