Law enforcement officials in Washington state have arrested a juvenile in connection with a hoax shooting call in September against San Marcos High School, San Marcos police announced Tuesday.
The Whitman County Sheriff’s Office arrested a juvenile in Washington on Thursday on charges of terroristic threats and false alarms and reported on a Sept. 24 hoax call about San Marcos High, police said. The minor faces other charges for similar calls elsewhere, San Marcos police said.
The suspect lives in Whitman County in eastern Washington. The San Marcos police investigation revealed no connection to San Marcos, nor was San Marcos High targeted for any specific reason, a police spokesman said.
The September 911 call, which came at 3:32 p.m., reported a gunman in the “main hallway” of the school. A male caller whispered while telling the dispatcher that the shooter had his gun pointed at him and that the caller was hiding in a bathroom.
The caller then told dispatch that the gunman had walked into the bathroom and that he could be heard saying “No, please, please, please” on the phone before a gunshot rang out in the background, police said. After the shot, the caller became unresponsive and about 40 seconds later a second shot was heard, police said.
The call drew a significant and large response from surrounding counties and cities, who initially treated the hoax as a legitimate threat. While police investigated, the high school was placed on lockdown and about 50 officers swept the school buildings.
“Although the call was determined to be a hoax, the emergency response to San Marcos High School was real, with more than 150 personnel from various agencies arriving on campus,” San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said in a statement Tuesday. “We know that many in our community, including parents and school staff, were shocked by the threat.”
Records from the original call suggested the call was connected to a series of other swat calls across the country, including a false threat against police in Lewistown, Idaho, San Marcos police said. Whitman County, Washington borders Lewiston.
San Marcos police declined to release the names of other schools or locations that received swat calls.
Detectives collected digital evidence from the suspect’s cellphone and computers seized through a search warrant at his Washington home that linked him to calls targeting San Marcos High and Lewistown police, San Marcos High and Lewistown police said Marcos. The data and information have been shared with the FBI and other agencies and more charges could be forthcoming, San Marcos police said.
The incident in San Marcos occurred amid a wave of swatting calls, or hoax calls, at Texas schools. More than a dozen students were arrested in Central Texas in connection with making or spreading false threats.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Minor arrested in connection with San Marcos high threat in September
